Returning Memories
by Nada Minnun
Summary: Rated for language and violence. When a certain clan betray one of their own, the consequences return to them. Chapter 9 up! Finally! R and R always appreciated!
1. Messages & Wounds

"Hey, Loraine." Marche tapped the viera assassin on the shoulder. She halted mid-sentence and slowly, cautiously put her tankard down.   
"What is it, chief?" she asked quietly. He sighed.

"You know I hate it when you call me that, Lori," he commented. She turned, her eyes glinting before she shook her head and grinned condescendingly.

"Well, what is it?" she asked. "Surely you didn't just interrupt my game just to be insulted. I was on a winning streak." She gestured at the table of two vieras, a moogle and a human. Etoile, a sniper, one of aforesaid vieras, smiled, shook her head and said, "Not any longer, Lori. Four aces. I win."  
"What?" snarled the summoner, Katarina. "You evil, evil little lamia spawn! I almost had a full house!" Pulling out her mythril staff, she whacked the sniggering sniper from across the table just as Etoile's hands had started reaching for the piles of gil situated around the thick, beery pub table. The moogle, a gunner, had started laughing so hard that he was in danger of spilling his drink, adding to the table's stickiness.

"Um, ladies, we'd better not fight-" began Darios, Clan Nutsy's illusionist-turned-blue-mage. The assassin sighed and shook her head, turning back to Marche, as a brawl broke out between the vieras, the unfortunate human 'who had the audacity to call us ladies' and the gunner, Basil, 'who had the audacity to laugh'. "So what is it, chief?"

"Lori..." he said. "Ritz has Clan Archmaster cornered in the Uladon Bog."

"Clan Archmaster..." whispered Loraine, her face suddenly a dark picture of uncertainty. Marche watched her worriedly and dodged a thrown cigarette, coughing as the waft of smoke came up behind him.  
"Hey, boss," whispered the voice. Suddenly, he realised it was Ingg, ninja and spy of the group. She was also the one who had trained him, back when they were both soldiers.

"What?" he asked, struggling to keep his face straight. She was teasing him by digging her chin into his shoulder plate. Yet this time, the movements had a kind of deliberateness, a kind of slowness to them, as if she was tired.

"Ritz says...if you're going to go, you better get your ass there fast or else the next time she sees you, she's gonna nail it to the wall for even asking her to do this bloody mission. One of her elementalists is down..." The ninja sighed and crumpled into a heap on the floor. He spun and winced. There was a huge, jagged slash across her side, reaching from shoulder across to hip, and a stab wound in her stomach. Her breathing was coming across shallow and soft. Slowness...she was tired...wounded.  
"Kat! Break it up, get over here!" With difficulty, the belligerent summoner detached herself from the group and hurried over. Like Marche, she winced.

"Doesn't look good. Might have to amputate..."

"What...you're gonna...chop off my torso and leave...me as limbs and a head?" Ingg asked weakly. "Thanks...lots, Kat."  
"Welcome," replied Katarina, "Unicorn!"

"So Ingg got nailed too, huh," sighed Loraine, coming up behind Marche. "You right, partner?"

"Been...better," groaned Ingg, and promptly fell asleep. Darios hurried over, now sans a tooth and with various bruises, prepared to carry her to their camp outside the city.

"Repeat after me, Darios. I, Darios..." began Marche.

"I, Darios..."

"Solemnly swear that I shall not try to make any advances towards the ninja..."

"Hey!"

"Repeat it!" snarled Marche threateningly, drawing his Target Bow off his back.

"But when have I made any advances toward the ninja?" protested Darios. "I'm not a pervert like some of the people we've had in the clan!"

"I'll accept that for now...but Basil! Go with him! And shoot him if he tries anything!"

"With pleasure, kupo," grinned Basil, pulling out his Lost Gun and one of the evilest smirks you could see on a living soft toy approximation. Ever.

When all was settled down, Marche went looking for a certain assassin. He found her a few minutes later, sitting on the Card Keeper's shop.

"Marche, can you please get her off my roof," sighed Ezel. "She's creepy to my customers."

"Anyone brave enough to buy antilaws shouldn't be creeped out," shot back Marche.

"Lori! Get down here!" he yelled, fifteen minutes later, after being solidly whacked about the head by Ezel by staff (times this happened: 38), antilaw cauldron (times this happened: 5) and suspiciously heavy hat (times this happened: countless).

"But it's so fun to see you getting beat up by someone your approximate shoulder height!" she called back innocently.

"Lori! Down! NOW!"

As she slid down the drainpipe and made her way to a battered-looking clan leader, Ezel sighed and made his way inside after dropping an antilaw on Marche's head and saying, "There, here's that Skills antilaw you paid me for yesterday, now don't let her on my roof again."  
"'Don't let her on my roof'...huh, you'd think I was some kind of animal." Loraine tapped her foot, sighed and dropped a Potion over Marche's blond head.

"You are. But that's beside the point. Are we going?"

"Waste of a good potion. Yes, we are."

"Are you going to be okay about it?"

"No," said Loraine mournfully. "But what the hell."

And her mind treacherously led her five years into the past...


	2. A Past & A Clan

Thanks to Ambassador Garnet L. Alexander (sorry, I don't know what to call you in short form so I shall use your whole name) for reviewing and indirectly inspiring me to write this next chapter. I'm glad you like it, and for all those others out there, review and I shall write!

Disclaimer: I do not own FFTA. I own a little cartridge which I stick into my GameBoy to load the game, but not the game itself. However, the people referred to here as Clan Nutsy are mine. Except in my game they're referred to as Clan Darklight-

Alie: whack Shut up and write, kid.

That was my homicidal muse, Alie. Call her the person who stands over you waving the baseball bat threateningly. Loraine is having a flashback…

One very determined archer, walking out of the weapon shop with her first bow over her back and swinging a very depleted purse from side to side, was searching for a clan. The first notice she found was stuck on a pole outside the pub.

"Wanted: archer," muttered Loraine, reading the poster. "Well, that's me! Now…'bring own bow'? What kind of cheapskates are these people?"

"You calling Clan Archmaster cheapskates?" snarled a voice from behind her. Her heart dropped into her stomach with a cold _clunk_, making her curse her big mouth, not for the first time that day.

"Yes. Yes, I am," she said, as calmly as she could manage as she considered her chances of staying alive. Turning around, she faced a ninja, flanked by a blue mage on one side and a gladiator on the other. Why would you need an archer with clan members like that? Fleetingly, the thought crossed her mind as the ninja raised an eyebrow.

"Good," said the ninja briefly. "Because you could say we are. Come on, archer person."

"That's it?" she snapped in disbelief. "No initiation test? No display of my abilities?"

"Hey, if you dare to call us cheapskates, you must have all the talent you need," grinned the blue mage. "My name is Matias. That's Sotel. This is Ivolt, here," he said, waving casually at the gladiator. "Right! Let's go!" Doggedly, she followed them, ignoring the bemused looks the gladiator kept shooting her. They kept on walking, right until they reached the outskirts of Baguba, until Matias looked behind, cast a grin her way and said, "You're still here?"

"Of course I am!" she snapped, stung.

"Good. Welcome to Clan Archmaster's camp. We'll get you kitted out, and you can join us on the next mission." It didn't look much to her. Four tents, pitched side by side, a pile of spare equipment heaped in a corner and a hunter, looking gloomy as he surveyed the equipment and the new clan member.

"What?" she asked, confused. Everything was moving too fast for her at the moment.

"You heard. See, there's really just us and Nils for now, so we need all the members we can get." He looked sheepish as he spoke, entering the camp and waving at the hunter. "Hey, Nils. We've got a new member."

"Oh joy. Oh rapture. Let's not lose again, shall we?" replied the hunter, somewhat maniacally. Loraine gave him a weird look and edged nearer Matias. It was only then that she realised the gladiator and the ninja were gone.

"Where did your friends go?" she asked quizzically.

"Off. They just disappear like that. Don't mind them. Don't mind Nils either, he's a maniacal, depressive, evil fellow. I think he went over the edge a long time ago." He rummaged through a pile and threw her a pair of boots and a hat.

"No mail?" she asked. "Shall I end up a walking porcupine?"

"Do you need it?" He grinned at the look on her face and added her a Chain Plate. "That's all we can give you for now. Mind if Nils tries to shoot through the tent again. You can use mine if you want to put it on. It's the one near the heap," he added.

"Bit of an ambitious name, isn't it? I mean…Clan Archmaster?" she asked as she hopped out, pulling a Dash Boot on.

"Hey, we'll live up to it," replied Matias confidently. He had started a fire and Nils was sitting opposite him on a log, muttering to himself and slapping his own wrist occasionally. "Roasted chocobo?"

"Um…" she studied it with forced interest, not particularly enjoying the thought of eating chocobo. She had had a pet chocobo once, a fluffy creature called Gaol after the legendary hero. "No thanks, I think I'll pass."

"Sure?" Nils asked. "No giant chickens to eat until Sagemo-oooooooon…The sky in Sagemoon, which I shared with my love…" Loraine stared in horror at the insane hunter.

"He's mad," she finally forced through her teeth. "Mad."

"Told you," replied Matias, handing her a bowl of stew. "Don't worry, it doesn't have chocobo in it."

"Really?"  
"Well, chocobo egg, but yeah."

"Meh." She ate it, concentrating partly on her food, on Nils' insane singing and on the events of the day. She was part of a clan, and by the gods she'd help make it great.

"Ready, aim, _fire_," whispered Loraine to herself, putting an arrow through the back of the head of a nearby thief. He collapsed. Energy jolted her; she had received a judge point.

"Get ready, Loraine! No, you _idiot_! Go for the boss! _Go for the boss_!" screamed Matias.

"Don't yell in my ear!" she screamed back. "I know-" Shoot. "What-" Beso Toxico here... "I'm-" Doubleshot on the Fighter… "Doing!" Unleashing a barrage of arrows upon the nearly unconscious fencer, she took out the white mage with another shot as Ivolt slammed the fighter with a Jump attack. Matias slashed at the viera archer, who tried to dodge and was impaled by Sotel's Nosada, Nils attacked the human archer with a Sonic Boom, demolishing the last of the clan.

"That was easy!" snorted Loraine, wiping her ears of debris. "What next?"

"We go back to Cyril. We have plans. Plannies, yes, planny wanny banny canny, canny, yes, that's what we are, right on the tip of my tongue!" cackled Nils.

"Shut up, Nils," said Matias, grinning. "How's the Twin Bow, Raine? Got used to it?"

"Sort of," she said. "Still liked the Cranequin better, though."

"Understandable." Again, the other two clan members had evaporated. She sighed, ruffled through the clan's pockets for spare gil and started to head down the road to Cyril. A soft cough from behind them made them turn, as a young Viera fencer observed them quietly.

"Hello?" she said. Loraine gave her one of her 'looks', the ones which Matias agreed were unnerving.  
"What?" she drawled, watching the other's eyes stay impassive. Damn, she thought. This one's good at this.

"Are you the Clan Archmaster people?" asked the fencer. "Because if you are, I wanted to join. I'm Miserie. I sent a letter to your base."

"Ah, Miserie," said Matias, attempting a straight face. "We've been expecting you."  
"Have you?" she asked, still with that unemotional stone mask.  
"Yes, okay, how did you find us?" asked Nils, before the other two could stop him. "Find us in a little game of hide-and-seek? Peeping round corners again, are we? Peekaboo!"

"Ignore Nils, Miserie, he's mad. Oh, you're _Miserie_!" exclaimed Loraine, memory finally jolted. Under her breath, she muttered to Matias, "That girl from Baguba. Remember? She sent a letter asking to join? And her big sister is that white mage in Lutia?"

"Yeah!" whispered back Matias, suddenly enlightened. "But…her sister's part of Clan Dip? Are you sure about this?"

"Don't worry!' Loraine said heatedly. "The younger sister has nothing on her!" All through this, Miserie observed them with her head tilted and the sense of rejection on her mind. She knew how everyone felt with her sister. It had been a mistake for Phoebe to join that clan. Finally, the blue mage turned back to her and nodded. "Let's go, Miserie."

Her heart jumped in her chest, but she kept her face still and inclined her face down slightly.

"It's a long way back," groaned Loraine, crossing her hands behind her head as Matias introduced them and gave their newest member the rundown and clan status.

"It is indeed," agreed Matias, shooting his arms out like a maniac. "It is, but oh what a day it is to travel! What is there left for us to do on this long and winding road…"

"You could shut up before I stab you with my arrow," teased Loraine. Turning to the silent fencer, she asked, "What about you, Miserie? Do you think he's crazy?"

Startled into speech, the fencer said softly, "No, but he is a little bit long-winded." Clapping her hands over her mouth a little too late, her fear turned to shock and mildly embarrassed happiness as she saw Loraine break into laughter, Matias grin sheepishly and Nils suddenly burst into a long rant on how pretty explodiful bombs were.

Well…she ignored that last one.

When they got back to camp on the city outskirts, a few unconscious bodies were strewn randomly over the place and Sotel was poking heatedly at a piece of paper as he argued with Ivolt.

"It'ssss not going to work, Ssssotel," hissed the gladiator. "We can't pull thissss one off unless we have an airsssship!" Miserie opened her mouth, about to say something, then closed it again. However, Matias, noting the movement, nudged her gently and whispered, "If you have something to say, say it. They won't care."

Nodding gratefully at the blue mage, Miserie cleared her throat quietly. The small sound diverted the two arguing clan leaders' attentions.

"Who are you?" asked Sotel, cutting her off.

"I'm Miserie, your newest clan member," she answered, with more than a bit of prompting from the sniper and blue mage.

"Your big ssssissster issss…" Ivolt glared at her narrowly, His eyes bored into her.

"Yes, she is," said the fencer. "But I know where you can get an airship."

"You do?" Sotel's eyes lit up incredulously. "Where?" Again, she hesitated, but continued, "There's a mog who runs an airship, a gadgeteer. We could overpower him if we had to. His name is Nono."


	3. Moving Out

Disclaimer: No, FFTA is not mine. I want it to be. It is not, however. My muse shall disembowel me and offer my entrails to the gods if I claimed it was.

Thanks to Mako-Streak for reviewing: Yes, that was one of the more embarrassing events in Marche's history.

Keep the reviews coming and keep my incentive flowing!

In the present… 

"Why are we moving out again, kupo?" asked Oskar, a moogle thief, nudging Etoile in the ribs.

"Because we need to go and kick some serious ass," answered Katarina, grinning as she stepped up beside them. "Why else?"

"You always kupo say that!" replied Oskar cheerfully. "And then it always ends up that you kupo stay in a corner and blast them from far off!" This resulted in a lot of loud screaming on the part of both, Katarina in fury and Oskar in laughter. There was pandemonium as one incensed summoner, brandishing her Mythril Staff threateningly as she chased the little thief, kept running and forgot about the fact that viera cannot phase through trees. Oskar, quite small even by moogle standards, collapsed laughing against an unpacked tent and sent it toppling around him, much to the fury of the occupants, who started yelling abusively and using interesting mog swearwords that involved razors and blunt knives. Etoile doubled over in laughter.

"You are all insane," commented Ingg calmly, now healed from the harrowing experience of being told by a certain summoner what amputation was all about.

"You noticed? How long did that take you?" asked Loraine, cocking an eyebrow as she tried to wind the black scarf around her ears again.

"Well…put it this way, I never wanted to bring it up for fear of getting blasted, shot, impaled or stabbed," answered the ninja. "Do you need help?" she added, eyeing the difficulty the assassin was having with the long scarf.

"No," answered Loraine haughtily. However, the effect was spoiled a second later as the scarf slipped out of her fingers and dropped on the ground around one of her boots. She tried to pick it up. She failed. She tried to lift her foot and get it off. It was stuck in the buckle somehow. A few minutes later, Ingg, Darios and Marche were laughing as they watched her run frantically around camp cursing the stupidity of scarves very obscenely. Eventually it wound round her legs and sent her face-to-face with the grass.

"It was an accident," mimicked Marche. "It could happen to anyone."

"It could!" she snapped huffily, picking herself up. Turning to the sniper, who was no longer hysterical, she asked, "How the hell do _you_ get it so perfect?"

"Practise," shrugged Etoile, but her eyes sparkled with laughter, which was turning her brown skin slightly darker as she attempted to suppress it.

"Yeah. Right," said Loraine sceptically.

"Practise makes perfect," answered Darios.

"Right. I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that from Mr. I-hate-this-job-it's-too-hard-and it's-a-gay-job-anyway, Darios Starcall," Etoile retaliated, her tone incredulous. He started to edge away, warily rubbing the back of his neck where she had bashed him at yesterday's bar fight and turning slightly red as she brought up his brief sojourn into Soldier-ism. Incidentally, the results of yesterday's fight had been a win on her part for the possession of the gil. Entirely. And no, there had not been a scuffle late at night that resulted in Montblanc's tent getting blown up and Montblanc himself unwittingly blasting a certain summoner (who, yeah right, hadn't done a thing) with Return Magic.

"Why haven't we left here?" asked a voice from near a now-dented tree.

"Because of you blowing up Monty's tent and Basil not being a morning person," answered Marche. "Otherwise we would've left, believe me." Ingg smiled.

"Hey Marche," grinned Etoile. "Look who's coming." She nodded in the direction of the road to Nargai. The clan leader took one look and blanched.  
"Hide me!" he yelped frantically. "Quick!" Too late. A red-haired girl was storming along the path, trailed by a green-clad viera who seemed to be choking. With laughter, that was, at the dramatic reaction of the clan members who had formed a small ring around their desperately afraid leader.

Ritz entered and glared at Marche, who was using Darios as a meat shield and trying to avoid the wrath of the red-haired girl.

"Marche…" said Ritz silkily, in a voice that dripped menace, "Get out from behind your clanners for once and don't be a slow, lazy coward." Stung, the blond archer emerged.

"I am not a slow, lazy coward," he declared. "I am just cursed to wait eternally for two very grumpy mogs. There's a difference."

"Yeah, one's an excuse and one's a confession," shot back Ritz, unimpressed. "You're an idiot as well as a coward. Get your ass to Jeraw Sands now or die."

"Jeraw, kupo?" asked Oskar, emerging finally from the wreck of the tent. "But they were in Uladon!"

"They snuck out," answered the angry female. "What's so funny, Shara?"

"Nothing…" gasped the viera. "Nothing…"

"Right, as if." Ritz's eyes narrowed. "The rest of my clan is holding them to make sure they don't run any more. But you will get there now or you will get into a coffin." She paused. "By force."

"Yes, mom," said Marche, grinning irritatingly.

"Good Marche," she replied, and moved away, back to where she came. Shara kept sneaking glances back and almost laughing.

"What happened, kupo?" asked an unusually gravely mog voice from behind them. Ingg looked Montblanc up and down a couple of times and sighed.

"You've got a hangover, Monty," she said matter-of-factly. He muttered, very quietly, 'yes' and retreated elsewhere to sulk and consume coffee in gallons. The ninja watched him for a few seconds, caught the rest of their eyes apologetically and raced after the moogle mage to make sure that no unfortunate accidents with the coffee occurred.

"And why is he drunk?" asked Katarina, sitting up. It seemed like she already knew the answer.

"Because every Friday, the bum has Lads' Night with his brother at the pub and drinks more than his weight in alcohol. Secondly, every Tuesday he joins his group of females friends and they have Lasses' Night and drink lots anyway, Yesterday-"

"Whoa, whoa," said Darios, holding his hands up as he interrupted the sniper. "Firstly, how do you know all this and secondly; Monty has lady friends?"

"Yes," nodded Katarina. "The two of us got curious. So we followed him."

Marche shook his head in wonder. "Wow."

"Tons," grinned Etoile, ignoring the first question and the blond human's statement. "He's very, very popular among the young mog girls."  
"I didn't think moogles had females!" blurted out the blue mage.

"How do they ensure the continuation of the species?" asked the summoner darkly.

"I don't know," grinned Marche. "Darios is under the assumption that there is an endless supply of viera who ensure the survival of the other races. That's sick, I know, but he's sick in the first place." Darios ran as Katarina and Etoile gave chase, this time for 'being offensive and prejudiced'. Loraine, preoccupied with her scarf, finally got it on and sighed in satisfaction.

"Did you hear a single word of the past fifteen minutes?" asked Marche, fascinated by her concentration.

"Not a whit," answered the assassin cheerfully, examining her nails. "All I know is that my traitorous clan is now in the Jeraw area."

"Lori, get it straight, kupo," sighed a voice from her knee. "It's your traitorous _former_ clan, kupo." The viera looked down at Oskar, who leaned against her and hugged her leg.

"Don't do that to any enemies," warned Loraine playfully. "They might get the wrong message."

"But Lori, kupo!" protested the thief. "That's exactly the kupo idea, so that they won't notice until I hack their kupo knee off!" At that, Loraine pretended to scream and hopped around the camp with Oskar hanging on and laughing, all the time with the assassin yelling, "AAAH! IT'S GOING TO HACK MY LEG OFF!! GETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF!!!"

"No, he said your _knee_ off, Lori," laughed Marche. "Not your whole leg!" She stopped hopping temporarily to glare at him, snap, "So what?" and alter her yell slightly.

A couple of hours later, with the hung-over mogs doused in coffee and the warring tendencies of a couple of viera curbed temporarily, one blue mage rescued from aforesaid viera, one hyper assassin calmed down and one moogle thief detached from aforesaid assassin's leg, the company proceeded. The little clan drove on, plodding along the road until nightfall where they arrived in Muscadet.  
"No Card-Keeper's shop to sit on," sighed Loraine, disappointed.

"No Ezel and his damn hat to bash me up," sighed Marche, grateful. "Let's go to Spina Lodge!"

"The inn, kupo?" asked Basil incredulously. 'Isn't that a bit expensive?"

"Hey, we'll see," said Marche, pretending disinterest. "We can afford it, you know."

"Yeah. Right…" said Etoile sceptically. They ended up staying at the inn, but the three viera teased Marche unmercifully about a crush on the pub barmaid.

"Let's go to Muscadet. It's nice this time of year," mocked Katarina. "And no matter if it's Madmoon, Sagemoon, Bardmoon or Huntmoon, you always say that."

"It's nice all year!" protested Marche.

"…Yeah…" Loraine shoved him lightly. "Because she's there all year, isn't she?"

"Well, maybe…" Marche tried to defend himself, but was shot down by the viera, a particular gunner and a certain moogle thief, who gleefully joined in. The other clanners watched Marche's discomfort with rising amusement over their game of Go Fish.


	4. Theft!

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own FFTA. If I did I wouldn't be writing fanfics…or maybe I would, since FFTA is good. But then again, it's always good. Well, f I did own FFTA, I would be filthy rich and laughing maniacally.

The past

"Look, the mog parks his airship in this hangar, near Baguba," said Miserie softly, circling a place on the map with her finger. "It's a new airship. He just built it. He's planning to fly it on a maiden flight on the third of Sagemoon."

"How do you know all this?" asked Sotel, his voice almost surprised.

"I know things," said the viera enigmatically.

"Well," grinned Ivolt, "Assssss long asssss they're beneficial to the clan,"

"Goody," said Loraine, rubbing her hands together. "I like fights."

"Who said we were going to fight anyone?" asked Sotel. "Maybe we'll just steal the ship."

"No, see," she said, waving a finger at him, "You can't just waltz in and nick someone's airship without having a fight. There'll be guards. There'll be some kind of resistance."

"Maybe," Matias said thoughtfully, "Maybe we can steal it when there're no guards around."

"How?" asked Miserie.

"Well, there can't be guards while he's flying it, right?" smiled the blue mage. "So all we have to do is stow away on the airship and hijack it when he's flying it."  
"You all realise this is highly illegal?" said a male voice gloomily. They turned to the forgotten Nils, eyes wide in shock.

"Nils?" asked Loraine, shocked. "You're coherent!"

"We're going to get caught and thrown in jail for this," continued the hunter, ignoring the viera's outburst. "We're going to be in the deep cack if he finds out who we were. And do you know who his big brother is?"

"Who?" asked the blue mage, drawn by the normally insane hunter's words.

"Montblanc of Clan Nutsy, that's who!" screamed Nils, starting to froth at the mouth. Loraine took a step back. "You know that Clan Nutsy's been rising through the ranks? You know that given the chance we'll be crunched up and thrown aside by them if the mog's big brother finds out!?"

"Calm down, Nils," said Sotel. "We'll make sure we won't get caught or found out."

"Easy for you to say," scowled the hunter. "Now, I'm going to sulk. Goodbye." He turned away and stormed to his tent, slamming into a tree on the way. The blue mage winced.  
"Well, we have been warned by the forecaster of doom," said Loraine sarcastically.

"If any of you want to back out of this, it's fine," said Sotel. In all the time she had been in the clan, he had never looked uncomfortable. Until now. "I don't blame you. It is illegal, yes. We'll probably be caught and put in jail, yes. But we need to do this."

"Why?" asked Matias. "What do we need the airship for?"

The ninja looked even more uncomfortable. "We're helping some people from overseas transport beasts."

"That will definitely get us thrown in jail," emphasised Loraine. "Very definitely."

"I'm willing to take that risk. The pay is very good."

"How good?" demanded Matias. Sotel leaned across the table slightly and beckoned the other human closer. Then he bent down and whispered in Matias's ear. The blue mage went completely rigid and his eyes glazed, his mouth opening and shutting a few times.

"Whoa," was all he could finally say. "Whoa."

"Worth it?' asked Loraine, cocking her head to the side.

"Yes," muttered Sotel. "Very worth it."  
"Then as I pledged, I shall follow you through thick and thin," shrugged Loraine.

"You didn't pledge anything," snorted Ivolt, returning from wherever he had disappeared to.

"Okay, so I didn't. But this is my clan. And I'll stick with you lot."

"For the money?" asked the bangaa.

"Maybe," grinned Loraine. The ninja accepted this and turned to Miserie.

"To our newest clan member," he said quietly. "Are you going to follow us through with this? You don't have to."  
"I will," she said. "You've accepted me when no other clan would."

"Matias?" asked Sotel.

"I'll come for the ride," said Matias, a sudden grin flashing onto his face.

"That leaves Nils," said Loraine. "Who's going to talk him into it?"

"All right," Ivolt muttered, "I will."

"Ready?" whispered Matias, huddled next to Loraine in the cargo compartment of the airship.  
"Ready as hell," whispered back the viera. The bangaa and the ninja had stolen another airship somewhere and were going to crash it into this ship. It was risky, and they might damage the airship, but it would distract the mog from their own sneak attack. Nils would be riding in on one of his tamed monsters in to distract the authorities and get the little gadgeteer to safety.

She had to give that to Nils. He was good with his monsters, so good that they hadn't needed a beastmaster to control a single one of them, because they loved Nils so much that they were completely tame and obedient to him.

Miserie was hidden in the cockpit with the moogle, ready to give them the signal to come in.

All too soon, there was a juddering crash, sending the whole airship lurching.

"That would be Sotel!" yelled Matias, rising and running to the cargo door, which he knocked down with a kick. Loraine followed fast behind, just as a yellow flare erupted out the side of the ship. The signal. They raced down the wooden corridor, the red door to the cockpit with its "Do Not Enter, Kupo" sign on it. It was flung open by a certain fencer as a firewyrm wheeled by the porthole, screeching as it flew closer to the bow and deck.

"Miserie!" yelled Loraine over the clamour. "Where's the mog?"

"I've got him!" she yelled back. "He was knocked out by the crash!"

"Get him to Nils!" The fencer nodded and moved to the pilot's chair, emerging a few seconds later with the small gadgeteer's form in her arms as she staggered out to the deck where the hunter was waiting.

"How do you pilot this thing?" shouted Matias from the steering wheel as the clan leader and the gladiator burst in.  
"Give it to me!" yelled Sotel, grabbing the wheel from the frantic blue mage. There was a screech as the wyrm took flight again, this time with two passengers. There was a lot of lever-pulling, button-pressing and examination before the ninja yelled in frustration, "This is too hard!'

"No it's not!" screamed Loraine. "You just have to-" She tugged a lever – "Improvise!"

The sound of gears on gears rattled up and they all lost their balance as the ship righted itself.

"Holy chocobos," gasped Matias, sitting up. "Whoa!"

"I rule!" grinned Loraine in elation. "I rule!"

"Well done," said Miserie appreciatively. "How?"

"I don't know," said the sniper, still grinning stupidly. "I don't know, but I did it!"

"Nice," said Sotel. "Now how do we steer?"

"Use the wheel?' asked Matias, shrugging. Sure enough, there was a mog-sized steering wheel in front of the pilot's seat…

…Definitely too small for any of them…

Nono woke up in an empty field, slightly dazed and very confused. All he could remember was the crash…

A fencer. He had seen a fencer, and she had apologised for something…

They had stolen his airship!

The thought hit him like a punch in the gut. His beautiful airship! Five months of tremendously hard work, stolen!

Anger welled in his little heart, blossoming into full-blown rage. How dare they. They had no right.

Sitting up, he looked around to realise he was just south of Baguba, resting near an airfield. He got up and began to walk the way back to the pub determinedly. He wasn't much good at fighting, but he knew someone who was.


	5. All Meetings End In Betrayal

Disclaimer: I do not own FFTA, bishounen hair and non-conformity. I own Nils and Sotel, Etoile, Darios, all those others and unfortunately Katarina.

Kat: Oi! **thwack**

Owies!

Thank you to my wonderful reviewers! This story would have drowned in the peat bog of my brain if you didn't review!! cookie Thanks tons you both!! Sorry I haven't written in ages. I have been ritually kidnapped by angry chocobos and offered to the god Choco for revenge from chapter 2. And I got dragged away and beat by angry moogle girls with big, big, BIG sticks for chapter 3.

My big apology – one HUGE chapter. Hope you likey, as this chapter is violent and strange…

Mako-Streak – Yeah, I'm glad you think so!! (.) WHAAAaaaaTT??!?! No STAR THINGIES?!?!? Sorry! The computer stuffed up… it's not allowing me to put star-things…I forget what they're called…(gah!) Anyway, I'm glad you like my characters…I like them to be 3-D! Sotel is one of my favourites, actually…he rules in an inaccessible, distant way.

Agla – (Yes, I finally read your bio and found out what to call you – bad, silly Nada) Well…let's just say that Darios is a little ignorant when it comes the things that are in a different league from magic. In the words of Katarina, "A complete ignoramus." In the words of Etoile, "A dork beyond comparison." In the words of Darios himself, "Hey…how come I got suckered into this?"

() I decline to comment on that bishounen remark. MEHEHE!! BISHOUNEN HAIR! And Nils is another of my favvies! He's like me!

Whoof-! Longest review replies, ever. Another non-conformist strike to my name. On with the story!

----------

**12:15 p.m**

**5tth of Sagemoon**

**Before the rest of the story happened**

**The Golden Gil, Baguba Port**

"Kupooooooo…" groaned Montblanc groggily as someone shook him hard and repeatedly.

"Monty. Monteeeeeeeeeeee…" drawled a green-clad apparition, looming beside him. It leaned in close. He opened his eyes wider.

There was a thoroughly satisfying sound as Monty keeled over, the green apparition waving a rapier threateningly with one hand as she flapped the other one to and fro to cool it off. The time mage could actually _feel_ the side of his face starting to warm up.

Sitting up, he glared at her and forced his dizzy eyes to focus.

"What, kupo?" he groaned as the hangover crashed back in with full force.

"Monty. It's me, Kat. Hello." Slowly, the elementalist peered at him, avoiding the wisps of alcohol-ridden breath. "You were out clubbing, weren't you?"

"So what?" slurred Montblanc. "Where coffee, kupo?"

"Don't 'where coffee, kupo' me, Monty. You're little brother's here to visit and boy does he look pissed!" Katarina turned away with evil glee on her face, quickly wiped away as Ingg walked through the tent flap.

"Oh, sweet mother," sighed the ninja. "Have you been telling him that Marche will ground him?" The look on the poor moogle's face was obvious.

"No, I told him that Nono was here," answered the elementalist happily.

"You're so evil it's traumatic," groaned Ingg. "Come on. Help me."

----------

**12:46 p.m.**

**5th of Sagemoon**

**Also before the rest of the story**

**The Golden Gil's Pub, Baguba Port**

Half an hour of coffee, threats, pleading and cajoling, cold water and prods from a very sharp Aerial Hole later, Monty staggered out with Marche. A little gadgeteer sat up, his eyes suddenly animated and filled with fire.

"Montblanc, kupo!" he cried.

"What? Whuh? Oh, yes, kupo! This is my brother Nono, kupopo!" said Montblanc, far more cheerfully than he really felt.  
"Hello, kupo!" said Nono cheerfully, but with a gleam in his eyes as he looked at his elder sibling. It was a gleam that said, "You went ahead on Lads' Night without me. You will be reckoned with. Kupo."

"Crud, kupo," muttered the time mage, climbing onto a chair as Nono recounted the story, shooting sharp glances at his brother.

"Are you listening?" asked Darios, white/black mage, quietly, two tables away with the rest of Clan Nutsy. "What're they saying?"

"Something about some gang stole his airship in a hit-and-run. Fun, fun, fun!" Etoile's eyes gleamed, feral and dark underneath the sniper scarf as she gripped her bow tighter.

"Does this mean we get to…" Oskar the juggler let his voice trail off excitedly.

"We get to kick arse, kupo!" grinned Basil, firing a round into the roof with a war-whoop. There were screams, no amount of small confusion and a lot of trouble in general. Five minutes later, when Katarina had trussed up the little gunner, she yelled, "It's okay now!" Various grumbling clanners, one distressed pubmaster and a very shocked gadgeteer emerged from under various tables as Marche rhythmically bashed his head on the table in disgust and Montblanc sighed a long, slow sigh.

"Oops," commented Ingg, leaning back casually.

--------

**1: 12 p.m.**

**5th of Sagemoon as well**

**On the other side of Ivalice**

**At the same time as the above two**

"Are you sure this was a good idea?" muttered Matias uneasily. "You hear things about the jagds."

"Nils will explode anything that endangers us. He's taken out a firewyrm and a grenade. Don't worry," said Sotel distantly.

"Sotel?" asked Miserie, quietly as always. "Where did Ivolt go?"

"He's on a mission," said their ninja leader, staring ahead blankly. It was a lie and they all knew it. The tension in the airship crackled like a knife, very unlike the casual and cheerful nature of Clan Nutsy, a world away as they schemed to bring about the downfall of Clan Archmaster. For a very high price, that was.

"Have any of you fought jagd fights before?" asked the ninja, turning to them. Although he was facing them, he seemed to be staring through them, right into the back of the airship where a huge and hungry monster resided in his imagination. One place where the law couldn't reach: the jagds.

"No, but isn't it that if you die here, it's true death? No chance of coming back?" asked Loraine nervously. That was what made the blue mage the most afraid. The plucky sniper was scared out of her wits.

"Yes," sighed Sotel, quite sadly and quietly.

"I don't want to die," stated Miserie simply. Somehow, that small comment sent the already teetering ninja over the brink and he turned on the suddenly fearful fencer.

"You don't, do you?" he roared. "You should have thought of that!" Miserie scrambled backwards, and, in her haste, tripped and fell.

"Miserie!" yelled Loraine, fear forgotten as she lurched forward with the ship, worried for the fencer, who was definitely scared of something very deep. And Sotel in a rage terrified the poor viera.

"You might not have come on this trip if you knew, eh? Well you know now! Do you want to jump out and go back?" Miserie was huddled up, backed into a corner, whimpering as she held her hands out before her like shields. The scene was chillingly painful to Loraine, and she stepped in front of the fencer, facing Sotel.

"Don't!" she yelled. "You'll make the situation worse by yelling!"

"Does it matter?" shrieked Sotel furiously as Matias grabbed his arms, twisting them up behind the ninja's back. "We're going to die whether she likes it or not!"

"Stop being so negative!" howled the viera over the engines as Sotel lunged, stopped by the surprisingly strong blue mage. "Stop it! Shut…" She thrust a hand forward in fury, going for the throat as she was taught. "…_up_!"

The ninja stopped dead and went completely limp, tipping forwards and almost taking Matias down too. The blue mage's eyes flicked from the unconscious ninja, to panting sniper, down to the surprised fencer in the corner.

"Was that just…" stuttered Matias. "Assassin…"

"Last Breath? Oh, please. Of course," gasped Loraine in reply, collapsing. "I haven't done it in ages. I'm out of shape."

"You know Corner abilities!" whispered Miserie in awe. "That should be useful in the jagd!"

"Maybe," shrugged the viera. "I need to change job classes, though,"

"That's easy," Matias said, still in shock. "And we've got a good katana or two."

"Why are you two gaping?" asked the sniper, getting up. "Are you just surprised?" She smiled at them tightly, trying to lighten the situation. "I didn't spend _all _my time before I met my clan bumming around at home, you know."

"I never thought so," sighed Matias, nodding. "Do you have any phoenix downs?"

------------

**1:24 p.m.**

**The same date**

**The same timeline**

**Baguba Port**

"In a jagd," said Etoile flatly. "A jagd, eh?"

"You son of a coerl! You signed us up for a jagd mission?!" screamed Katarina as Oskar attempted to lever off a certain human, who had fainted right on top of him. For the twelfth time, he fell back down, gasping.

"Some help, kupo?" he panted, squished under the weight of a human easily three times his own mass. He was ignored by all but an observant ninja, who detached from Marche's side to help lift Darios off the little mog, who was starting to turn blue.

"Well, you've done lots of insane things, kupo, but this takes the cake!" exploded Basil as Ingg untied him. "How could you sign us up for a jagd mission without telling us?"

"You're my clan, and I'm you're leader," retorted Marche, turning slightly red. "I'll choose what's best for us!"

"Yeah, and how would you know what's best for us?" snapped Katarina angrily. "I don't think you can make that judgement!"

"I'm doing this for the clan!" yelled Marche, frustrated.  
"You're doing this for yourself!" yelled back Etoile. "Stop thinking of the clan as your meal ticket and start thinking of us as people!" With that reply, the blond human's face completely drained of all colour and he turned away. Finally, he said in a very subdued voice, "All right. What would you have done?"

"Asked," snapped Oskar. "You could have just asked us, kupo."

"So will you follow me or not?" asked Marche tiredly, running his fingers through his fringe and looking back at them.

"Of course we will," growled Katarina. "We just wish you'd see us as people, that's all." Just in time, Marche stopped himself from saying, "But you all don't exist. It's just a game." Instead, he muttered, "I'm sorry."

"What was that you said?" taunted Etoile. "We didn't hear it."  
"I'm sorry," he said, louder. "Look, all I've been trying to do is get home. I'm sorry if I've been ignoring you guys."

"So you should be," snapped Katarina, but Ingg hushed her. Turning to Marche, she said quietly, "We appreciate your honesty. Just lighten up a little, Marche. Don't be so intense about getting home. Have a bit of fun at least, because we'll try and help you, but until you go home, we're your family. We'll be your friends. Don't see each battle as a stepping-stone to the way home, see it as a good point for your clan."

There was silence as the rest of them looked at her with newfound respect.

"So let's go," muttered Marche. "Let's make this a team battle, then."

-----------

**2:56 p.m.**

**Whatever you want it to be**

**I don't frankly care**

**Jagd Dorsa**

"Dear god," whispered Matias, gripping the controls. There was an odd look of relief on his face as he saw the jagd, the kind of look that you saw on someone returning home after a long trip. It was quickly wiped away.

"Dear god," echoed Sotel, staring at the blasted and miserable landscape of the jagd.

"Wow," said Loraine, looking at the blasted landscape of the jagd. "Our new home, huh?"

"Yes," sighed Sotel. "I'm sorry."  
"Don't worry, we're all in this together. So long as you don't spazz out," grinned Loraine.

"You're unbelievable," said Matias, shaking his head. "You're so calm about it."

"It's a gift! What can I say?" asked Loraine, twirling dramatically and examining her new assassin gear.

Fifteen minutes after a chaotic touchdown, the two viera climbed out and looked at each other. Nils swooped by overhead, howling "BANZAI!!" at the top of his voice. They both ducked as he leapt off a few metres down, bounced off a tattered awning, landed on a crate and stood up, brushing himself off.

"Talk about reckless," remarked Miserie quietly.

"So am I," Loraine answered airily. "I'd jump off that tower if you gave me five hundred thousand gil."

"No, that's just greedy," cut in Matias. "You know, when you're actually in the jagd itself, it's not so bad."

"Just pre-moving jitters, eh?" joked Miserie. It was the first joke she had made, and it was a good sign. She was warming up to her clan.

"Now what do we do?" asked Matias, turning to Sotel.

"We go and bomb the fruit with chocobos!" cackled the ninja. Matias blinked. It wasn't Sotel; it was Nils. The blue mage whirled around, expecting to see the clan leader standing behind him, but the ninja had disappeared.

"Sotel?" yelled Matias. His voice bounced back in echoes. "SOTEL!"

"He's gone!' exclaimed Loraine in bewilderment. "I didn't even see him leave!"

"Where'd he go?" asked Matias.

"He's gone," repeated Loraine, shocked. "He's gone."

----------------

**3:34 p.m.**

**6th of Sagemoon**

**Whaddya think?!?!**

**Lutia Pass**

"Take Lutia, you said! It's beautiful this time of year, you said!" howled Katarina over the blizzard.

"It is if you look past the snow!" yelled Marche. Ignoring this, the other viera surged on with, "It's peaceful, you said! It's easy, you said!"

"It is peaceful!" protested the clan leader guiltily.

"It isn't with Clan Dip surrounding us, kupo!" yelled Basil. There was silence. The blizzard began to ease up slightly. Marche sighed in defeat. Montblanc sighed in exhaustion. Oskar sighed in extreme irritation.

"He's right," hissed Katarina, whacking Marche across the back with her rapier. "You are an idiot beyond comparison, Marche."

"I stand corrected on all counts, then!" Marche yelled, his pride stung. "Now are we going to be arguing and arguing, or are we going to kick Clan Dip all the way to kingdom come?"

"Kick their arses!' screamed Etoile, stringing her bow and howling a bloodthirsty howl.

There was silence. Even the blizzard seemed to stop for a few seconds, as if saying "huh?" There was snickering from further up the pass.

"Umm…too much?" asked the sniper sheepishly. The moogles nodded simultaneously.

"Too much, " agreed Darios.

"Whatever! Are we going to talk, or are we going to fight?" yelled Ingg, drawing her Charfire and her Nosada.

"Fight!" chorused the rest. The weariness seemed to slip away at the mention of a fight, and the small company lunged up the pass.

"Firaga!" called Darios. The soldier and thief of Clan Dip went up in flames, further up the pass. A second later, the white mage staggered out, Slowed by Montblanc's trigger-happy powers. The human archer took five arrows to the torso and staggered up, only to be struck down by a katana through the torso.

"Surprise," whispered Ingg, withdrawing the Nosada.

"One! Two! Five!" shouted Katarina, and called down a Fire Whip on the viera archer.

"Three, kupo!" Basil yelled. Oskar slashed at the moogle thief, creeping up behind the gunner.

"Whatever!" Katarina blasted the two archers and dropped her hands as the blizzard died down and revealed the bodies of Clan Dip.

"Now, wasn't that fun?" asked Etoile happily.

"I hate your definition of 'fun'," gasped Darios, sitting up from a snowdrift. "Someone help me get this arrow out of my leg."

"Clumsy black mage, kupo!' exclaimed Oskar.

"Clumsy I may be, but dead is what I will be once I change job classes," panted the black mage. "Ready to be elevated to Illusionist-ness, Marche."

"You mastered it, finally, kupo," sighed Basil. "I'll get the stuff."

"Do I have to wear the robes?" asked Darios pleadingly. "They look girly!" The instant the words were out of his mouth, he regretted it. Two viera loomed over him, one aiming a very sharp arrow at him, the other holding a multicoloured ball of magic in one hand and vaguely tossing it up and down.

"I can't decide what spell this will be," said the elementalist conversationally.

"I can't decide whether to just kill him outright or make him die a slow and painful death," answered Etoile, sighting down the bow.

"Slow and painful, definitely, kupo," commented Basil, enjoying the scene. "What do you think, Ingg, kupo?"

"I say knock it off, you lot," said the ninja, pushing through between the two violent viera and the traumatised human. "Darios, keep your sexist comments to yourself. Etoile, Kat, save your aggression issues for counsellors, or, even better, engagements." She paused. "And I think you both mastered something."

"Really? Let me check…" Kat paused. Her face brightened, a moment later. "Hey! I can be a summoner now!"

"Very good," grinned Etoile. "Blast 'em with Ifrit, Kat!" Oskar brightened.

"I've finished the juggler jobs, kupo," he pointed out. "Can I go back to being a thief?"

"I don't see why not," answered Marche, distracted with his own stat check.

"We'll set up a job change tent," directed Ingg. "Over there, in that clump of trees. Darios, melt the snow. And no one peek at Kat while she changes, or he is asking for slow and painful castration."

---------------

8:47 p.m. 

**8th of Sagemoon**

**sigh**

**Jagd Dorsa**

"Well, that's that," shrugged Loraine, slicing through the fighter of the clan and finishing them off. "You can be a red mage if you want."

"Really?" asked Miserie, her eyes lighting up.

"Hell, yeah…you don't have to ask me, Mis, just go for it," laughed Loraine.

"We've changed, you know," muttered Matias. The vieras looked at him. "Since we came to the jagd…we've changed."  
"We're reckless and lawless now. Is that what you mean?" Loraine sheathed her katana. "Because we ourselves haven't changed. Except maybe you, Matias. You don't joke as much as you used to."  
"I'm worried we'll get caught," answered the blue mage, sitting down heavily. "I just don't feel comfortable as a criminal."

"Hell, if that's what bothers you, then don't think of yourself as a criminal, Matias!" exclaimed the assassin. "Think of yourself as an individual. A rebel. Authority-challenged! Whatever!"

"Authority-challenged…hah, that's a good one," sniggered Nils. "That's almost as good as that old saying that you can't mix creams, flans and jellies together…but I showed them…I showed them all! Of course, I had to clean up the guts afterwards…"

"You never cease to amaze me," sighed Matias, lying back and folding his arms under his head. "Do you think the stars care? No." It was such a random comment that it completely threw Loraine off.

"What do you mean?" she demanded, staring at the blue mage. He sat up on his elbows and looked at her.

"Look at the stars, Raine," he said. "Then maybe you'll understand." He got up and walked away, leaving a very bewildered assassin, a laughing fencer and a joking hunter behind.

"Are you going to get any rest?" asked Miserie, red mage, later.  
"No," answered Loraine snappishly. "Not until I figure out what he meant!"

"It's no good losing sleep over it, Raine," protested the red mage quietly, trying to climb up the side of the deserted building. "Come on."

"No," repeated the assassin stubbornly. "Matias is my friend. I'm worried about him."

Miserie struggled up to the top and brushed off her new red clothes. "I think he's in love with you," she said, quite calmly. Loraine whirled, eyes wide with shock.

"What?!" she exclaimed. Her voice bounced off the buildings of the jagd and echoed back at her.

"Raine, I think he's in love with you," repeated Miserie.

"No way," answered the assassin sternly. "Now look! Miserie, he doesn't love me, he's just a really good friend! I don't love him, I think of him as one of my closest friends, and that's why…" Her voice trailed off.

"That's what's making him sad," said the red mage quietly, sitting down next to her. Away from the city pollution, the stars were gorgeously clear.

"I don't think he loves me," groaned Loraine, but with less conviction.

"Ask him," was all the red mage said. A cool breeze whistled across the normally harsh landscape, lending it some peace.

"Tomorrow," said Loraine, procrastinating. She really had no intention of asking the blue mage.

-------------

**5:53 p.m.**

**9th of Sagemoon**

**Do you get it or not?! Just…before…**

**Jagd Dorsa**

"We're here," sighed Ingg.

"We're here, kupo," agreed Montblanc.

"I was born in a jagd. Did I tell you that?" she asked, glancing sidelong at the clan leader. Marche shook his head.

"I don't think you ever did," he said honestly. "That's an interesting life story."

"Are you mocking me?" she said, her face completely straight.

"No!" he gasped, panicked. "No, no!" He shook his head vehemently. "Just saying it like it is!" She leaned over to him and stuck a slender finger between his collarbones.

"Are you trying to make a fool of yourself, Marche?" she asked sweetly.

"No-I mean, yes," he answered unthinkingly, watching the frantic motions of Darios and the three moogles behind her back.

"Good." She shoved him, ever so gently, and he fell backwards into a small pothole. "Because you're a real idiot." She winked at him and, hoisting her pack a bit further up her shoulders, walked off. He stared at her, gaping.

"Marche? Ma-arche…" called Darios, waving a hand up and down before the fighter's face.

"Ivalice to Marche, kupo," chimed in Oskar. "Marche…"

"No use, kupo," said Basil sorrowfully. "He's been zombified. Cast a spell on him and kill him, quick, kupo."

"I know a better way," grumbled Etoile, uncapping her water flask. "Hold this, would you?" She handed her bow to Katarina and poured the water over the stunned fighter's blond head. For a few moments, the two ridiculous bits of fringe that stuck up like a rooster's comb from Marche's blond head drooped soggily. The vieras inhaled, shocked and relieved.

A few seconds later, the blond plumes sprang up again, showering everyone with tiny droplets of water.

"Damn!" cursed Etoile, adding a few more vulgar, obscene, rude and definitely insulting words to describe the aberrations of fashion.

"There's only one way to solve that, kupo," said Montblanc, amused.

"His hair?" demanded the summoner.

"No, his daze, kupo," answered the time mage patiently.

"Kupo?" asked Oskar, interested despite himself.

"Like this, kupo." Montblanc raised his Terre Rod, and, with a happy smile on his face and the words "This is for enrolling us in a jagd mission without asking," he brought the staff down, hard, on the human's head.

For a few seconds, there was no visible effect. Then Marche slowly looked up at the grinning moogle and began to say "Hey-"

"Andthisisforleavingmetomylittlebrotherafterwards!" added Montblanc quickly, bashing Marche again. The blond human keeled over, in slow motion, hitting the ground with a thump.

"Bravo! Encore!" cheered the audience, clapping.

"He's unconscious," said Darios, kneeling down beside his fellow human.

"You say that like you actually care, kupo!" scolded Basil scathingly.

"Well…he is the clan leader," said the illusionist nervously, backing away.

"And who gives a panther's shi-"

"Keep it PG-13, Kat, kupo," warned Oskar, raising a small hand. Then he blinked.

"Where'd that one come from, kupo?" asked Monty, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know," muttered Oskar, looking down at his Dash Boots.

"Authorspace," proclaimed Ingg solemnly, picking Marche up. "Come on, help me revive him. I have no desire to drag him to our camp."

--------------

Actually…why do I bother…it's not as if anyone cares… 

**I quit**

**Ya hear me?! I quit!! Find some other sump to do the job! Haha!**

"What the hell?" muttered Loraine, spotting the lone ninja dust cobwebs off a door and enter an abandoned building. The ninja came back out a few minutes later, wiping her/his katanas on a tattered rag near the door, looking around and spotting the assassin.

Loraine could have sworn that the ninja smiled. She couldn't be certain, seeing as the base half of the ninja's face was hidden behind that damn blue scarf, but she could almost _feel_ the smile. Then the strange ninja nodded at her and walked back down the road where she/he came from.

Of course, she could have shot the intruder, but why would she?

"Miserie!" she hissed. "_Miserie_!"

"Raine-aah! Ow!" Alarmed, the assassin popped back to the crude ladder where the red mage sat at the base, rubbing her head, dazed.

"Are you ok?" the assassin whispered.

"Yes! Why are you whispering?" asked Miserie, puzzled.

"Because a strange ninja just walked in, opened up one of the buildings down the road and nodded at me!"

"Are you sure?" asked the red mage quietly.

"Very!"

"I'll tell Sotel," whispered the viera, and slipped away. A few minutes later, the clan leader poked his head above roof level and asked, "Are you very, very sure?"

"Very, very, very, very, very sure!" Loraine growled. "How many times do I have to repeat myself?"

"Calm down, Raine," sighed Matias's voice. She climbed to the edge and peered over. "Maybe they were scavengers."

"I doubt it," scoffed the assassin. "Bounty hunters more like. The law's come for us."

"Do you know who it is?"

Loraine sat up again. A procession of sorts was coming down the unused road: the ninja who she had seen before, two bickering viera, a trio of joking moogles, one gloomy-looking illusionist and one blond young man, closer to a boy, who stumbled down the road as if drugged.

She blanched. She knew that bad hairstyle and those shabby soldier clothes from anywhere.

"It's Clan Nutsy," she forced through the corner of her mouth.

"What?" demanded Sotel.

"It's Clan Nutsy! Clan Nutsy, I tell you! _Clan Nutsy_!"

Sotel was silent for a very long time. Matias had buried his face in his hands. Miserie was leaning against the wall for support.

"This is it," said Sotel finally, emotionlessly. "Get ready. We'll engage tomorrow."

"Matias?" said Loraine guiltily, when all the rest had left. The blue mage was turning to leave, but she leaned over and grabbed his arm.

"What, Raine?" he asked tiredly.

"A-a-are you…I mean…d-do you….I mean, do I, I mean, d-d-do you…" she paused in her exasperation to gather her wits.

"Matias Haiver," she said finally, "Do you love me?"

He stared at her for a very, very long time before saying cryptically, "I see you've looked at the stars, Raine," and leaving. She let go.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Matias!" she yelled after him, half angry, half disappointed. He sped up until he was running, away from the camp, away from her, away into the labyrinth of the jagd. She harboured a few seconds of brief suspicion as she wondered how Matias seemed to know exactly where to run, but banished it for the former emotions.

Why? she scolded herself. It's not as though you loved him too…

-----------

The next morning 

**sob No one cares…nobody missed me…**

**I'm unappreciated… sniff Nobody loves me…**

**Chocobos and pretty wyrm greens…Easter eggies, yesamamie?**

**Push off, Nils…I'm depressed as it is…**

The fancy banter passed between the leaders while Loraine stood ready for battle. That ninja, the one she had seen earlier, was standing almost face to face with her.

"Let's engage!" yelled Sotel and Marche simultaneously.

-----------------

I give up… 

Ingg afforded herself a quiet smile. She had been telling Marche the truth. She had been born in a Jagd and had grown up in one…therefore, she was more than ready for this fight.

She had been born in this jagd. Right here. In the building they had camped in for the night. She and her brother.

She wondered, almost wistfully, if her brother still remembered their old tricks. When the call to engagement came, she sprang. The rest of her clan called to battle exploded in all directions, raring for a fight. Darios cast his first Illusionist spell – Prominence. The fires blazed down, striking the viera in front of her and the blue mage. But the viera struggled back up, just as the blue mage did. He cast White Wind on the both of them, healing them. He saw her, immediately looked away. He remembered.

Lunging for the assassin, she said, aloud, "Remember me, assassin?"

"I remember," hissed the assassin through gritted teeth, bringing a Masamune up and around to parry the two opposing blades. "You're that damn ninja from yesterday."

"Of course," said Ingg, casually bringing around a sideswipe. "Wondering why?"

-------------------

**I'm gone. Goodbye.**

"Are you here for the bounty?" snarled Loraine. She knew the ninja was probably trying to distract her.

"Maybe!" replied the human, dodging a thrust and slashing at Loraine's torso.

"You're a bloody liar," shouted Loraine, leaping backwards and preparing Last Breath for the ninja. "Why would you be here otherwise?"

"Because you're criminals!" answered the human. Now that Loraine was close to her, it was a bit of a shock to realise that the ninja was female.

"Why are we criminals?" challenged Loraine.  
"You ;re trying to benefit from another's work!" yelled back the human, jumping aside as the dark power of Last Breath swept the space where she had been.  
"So maybe we are!" shot back Loraine.

"I'm bringing you down! _Matias_!" screamed the ninja. Distracted, the assassin looked aside at the mention of her friend's name, that moment of non-concentration making her slip backwards on a jagged pave.

-----------------

That old pave, Ingg thought. The one Matias slipped on and hit his head when he was little. When we were little, she corrected. Turning her attention to her foe, as the assassin fell, she stabbed out quickly. She wouldn't get another chance like this. The viera was too wary.

--------------

A Charfire melted through her torso, piercing something vital. She screamed breathlessly and collapsed completely as lancing pain tore through her insides.

"_Matias_!" repeated the ninja. There was a cry of anger, a voice Loraine recognized, from the far side of the battlefield. Staggering back up again, she stabbed blindly at the ninja.

"You're a liar-" she gasped, coughing up something fluid. "You're a liar and a cheater, you didn't play fair-" She coughed again. The dusty, grey tiles below her were spattered with blood.

"You didn't either," shouted the human. "That's why we're bringing you in!" As the viera launched herself again, her opponent turned one of her katanas around and clubbed Loraine on the head with the hilt. Stunned, Loraine dropped and sank.  
"Can't…die…" she managed, her katana slipping from limp fingers.

"Why not?" asked her foe, almost emotionlessly.  
"Never…told…Matias…" she coughed up blood again. The ninja bent down next to her, dodging an arrow quickly and lifting the viera's head off the ground.

"Never told Matias what?" she asked quietly.

"Never…told…him I…told him I…" Loraine coughed again. The ninja didn't flinch, and caught the next arrow that came at her.  
"Tell me," she whispered. "I'll pass it on."

"Told him I…watched the stars…for a long time," gasped Loraine, just as the world went black. She somehow knew that this ninja would make good on her word. She felt her head slipping back onto the ground.

-----------------

Matias cried out as he saw Loraine fall. His heart stung, suddenly, that he'd never really got to tell her what he felt.

"Loraine!" he yelled, surging towards her through the crowd.  
"Not so fast, bucky!" howled Etoile, sliding in front of him and holding an arrow to his head.

"Go away!" yelled Matias helplessly, casting Matra Magic on her as he ran. She sank to her knees, temporarily stunned. He was stopped short in his tracks by a slender form.  
"Ingg!" he shouted, desperate. "Just let me get to Loraine!"

"She's dead, Matias," Ingg answered. He stopped.

"D-dead…" he stared at her, drawing his saber and holding it between him and his sister.

"She told me to tell you she watched the stars for a long, long time." Leaving the blue mage dumbstruck, Ingg leaped away.

A few seconds later, Matias got up with a new respect for the world, only to be blasted by one illusionist who was taking out the frustration he was bearing concerning the Illusionist robes out on the enemy, and one time mage who was very, very superbly pissed at what his little brother had done in evil retribution for missing out on Lads' Night.

----------------

"We'll let you go," said Marche, "If you promise never to do it again."

"Aww," whined Etoile, none the worse for wear, "Can't we just murder them a little bit?"

"No," said Marche firmly. Nils was mourning over the bodies of his precious monsters. Sotel was being slammed against the wall by a furious Katarina, surrounded by a mog, a ninja and an illusionist. Miserie had her eyes closed as she huddled against the wall. A very pale Matias was crouched in the corner. He looked up, his eyes dull.

"You won't send us to jail?" he asked quietly.

"No," sighed Marche. "I won't. But come back, do it again, and so help me God I will rip your spine out, garrotte you with it and leave what is left of you to the strays."

"Nice," said the summoner, pausing from beating up the ninja briefly. "You're learning how to threaten, Marche!"

"Thank you," said Matias, getting up. "I won't."

"Put the clan leader down, Kat," warned Ingg.

"Okay, okay…sheesh…" grumbled the irked summoner, dropping the dazed ninja. Ingg helped the clan leader to his feet, and Matias came and lifted him.

"Until we meet again, Matias," Ingg said quietly.  
"Until we meet again, Ingg," he agreed, slinging the clan leader over one shoulder. "Nils! Come and help!" Miserie followed, silent.

Watching the company stagger off onto the road out of the jagd, Marche looked at Ingg.

"I thought they had one more clan member?" he asked.

"They do," she whispered, paling. "Oh, no."

She raced after them.

"Wait!" she called, Etoile following her. "Wait! Stop!" The four of them turned.

"What now?" asked Matias tiredly.

"Your other clan member. You left her behind."

"Leave her," growled Sotel, abruptly regaining consciousness.  
"What?" asked Miserie, shocked. "We can't leave Raine behind!"

"She's dead, isn't she?" asked the ninja callously. "Leave her."

"But-" Nils began to speak.

"I'm the clan leader," snarled Sotel. "And I say: Leave her." Etoile peered at him, then nodded and took Ingg's arm.

"Come on, they don't want her," she said quietly, drawing the ninja off. Ingg knew better than to ask questions. Etoile just knew these things. Beneath her aura of violence and general confidence was a little viera who had seen her parents and brother murdered before her by a bandit clan, a little viera who could see madness.

"Why?" demanded the human later.

"He's snapped," declared Etoile. "Gone mad. The loss of drove him insane."

"Of the battle, or of her?" asked Katarina.  
"Of both, I guess," shrugged Etoile.

"That's all fine and well," said Darios, "But what do we do with her?" He motioned to where the assassin lay, on an unused bed. He saw the seven glares fixed on him and asked, "What? _What?_"

---------------

That evening, the fallen clan nursed their wounds in silence while Matias recuperated his magic. The blue mage limped out of his tent, walked to the nearby stream and took a drink, then looked up at the stars. A pang filled him with guilt. He was about to turn around and go back to his tent, to sleep, to forget, but he saw a rabbit jump out of the bushes nearby.

"You loved rabbits, didn't you, Raine," he whispered to himself.

"Are you worried about her?" asked a voice from behind as a comforting hand landed on his shoulder. He turned. It was Nils.  
"I hope she's ok," he answered.  
"She made it to peace, Matti boy," said Nils, patting his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault."

"Really?" asked the blue mage miserably, ignoring the second comment.

"Raine can take care of herself," the hunter replied, and left.

Matias sat down and cried for a viera he knew, a viera who was his friend, who he had almost loved, now lying dead in a jagd.


	6. Induction

Disclaimer: I don't own a lot of things I wish I did…sigh. That includes FFTA.

Mako-Streak – They don't know she's alive. But she doesn't know that, and thinks they betrayed her. Tragic misunderstanding…

I sayeth vw00t for Nils!! D

Sorry if my writing is a bit confusing…I get too caught up in detail sometimes…-p

SilverGalaxy – Thanks for becoming a reviewer! ) Anyway, keep reading, and maybe Loraine will meet up with her old love…don't you feel sorry for poor Matias? He's had his heart broken…'(

---------------

"So what do we do with her, really?" asked a bemused Darios.

"We won't leave her to die like they did, that's for sure," snapped Katarina.

"But she's dead, isn't she, and we've got enough to answer for as it is! We-" The illusionist stopped – well – dead, beat down by the glares of the vieras, Oskar and, surprisingly, Ingg. Basil and Montblanc played cards in the corner, and Marche watched the debate in silence, head on hands and elbows propped on his knees.

"Who said she was dead?" asked the ninja icily. At those words, everyone in the temporary campsite stopped what they were doing and looked at Ingg in shock. She couldn't have gotten their attention more fully if she'd said that Babus was Marche's father.

"I don't aim to kill, Darios Starcall," said Ingg, the contempt in her voice obvious to the blindest, stupidest Illusionist, which, in their perceptions, Darios was.

"She's not, kupo?" asked Oskar, stunned. "But she's – "

"With the attentions of a good healing-spell, she'll live." Marche got up from the ring around the fire and looked to the body of the viera, eyes worried and angry at the same time.

"Why didn't you tell their clan leader that she was alive?" he demanded, turning to Ingg.

"Because to his mind, she's dead, kupo," Oskar answered for her, poking the embers of the fire around with his Khukuri and looking sidelong at sniper and ninja. "Is that it, kupo?"

"Yeah," answered Etoile slowly. "To him she's dead, and I think her other clan members think she is too. After a while, she'd be driven out by his silence."

"Tragic," sighed Katarina. "So we heal her up and send her away, clanless?"

"We're not going to do that," Marche answered strongly. His conscience was kicking in, making feel guilty that this viera had lost her clan and almost her life. "We'll take her in."

"We will?" Darios asked. "Can we afford to?"

"I don't see why not, kupo," grinned Oskar. "I mean, we already afford one demanding as hell viera, kupo, and a blackmailing summoner." Aforesaid pair glared blackly at the moogle, their eyes willing him to burn to a crisp.  
"All right," said Ingg, sighing. "It's my fault anyway, so I say yes."

"Basil! Monty!" yelled the 'blackmailing summoner' to the other two, not taking her eyes off the offending thief, who was chuckling.

"Kupo!" chorused the moogles.

"We're considering adding the assassin to our entourage! Do you mind?" shouted Etoile, still glaring at Oskar. There was silence. Then Basil said, "Okay, kupo!"

"Monty, what about you?" asked Marche, turning to the time mage. He was very shocked, and more than a little scared, considering that he still had the bumps from the Terre Rod on his head, to note the bat-winged moogle's reaction.

"Do…I mind, kupo?" said Montblanc, getting up and putting his cards down. Basil peeked quickly and got Thundara'd for his effort. "Why, yes, I mind, kupo!"

"Why?" asked Ingg, pulling out her whetstone and beginning to sharpen her katanas. The screeching sound was especially loud to the moogles and the vieras, who winced.

"Could…you stop that, kupo?" asked Oskar, his hands over his ears.

"Not until Montblanc tells me why he objects so strongly to a new clan addition," she said calmly, leaning back against the wall and wetting the blade.

"Because she's from that bloody clan, kupo!" growled Monty through gritted teeth.

"Discrimination," scoffed Katarina, quickly breaking off the glaring.

"You didn't stop us from joining," pointed out Etoile. Both of them had come from different, small clans, which were breaking up and found Clan Nutsy. Marche's previous viera archer, Marion, had been found selling secrets about the clan to the palace and promptly Firaga'd and dismissed.

"You weren't from an outlaw clan, kupo," Monty growled, sounding very menacing for a creature the height of Marche's thigh – with pompom.

"So what if she is?" Katarina challenged. "Nothing matters in this clan. Look at what our Oskar used to be. And look at you, Monty! You were a drunk bum before Marche created Clan Nutsy!"

"And how many times did you get arrested for indecent exposure?" Ingg drawled, stopping the run of the blade. Montblanc flushed a dull red.

"You're not supposed to point that out to anyone, kupo," he muttered.  
"And what's wrong with being the best kupo thief and general pickpocket, burglar and fraud this side of Ivalice kupo?" asked Oskar miserably, but his question was trampled by the herd of wild enquiries that surrounded the ninja about her statement.  
"When, kupo?" asked Basil excitedly.

"Tell me," grinned Katarina. "I want to hear this. More blackmail."

"Heal the assassin first, Kat," reprimanded Marche. The summoner stuck out her tongue defiantly, but obeyed.

All of the clanners listened in glee as Kat finished the healing and Ingg began the story, which had them laughing in stitches by the end, except a very red and embarrassed Monty who wished he could climb under a rock and die.  
"Fine, let her join," he muttered.

"I knew you'd see it my way," smiled Ingg.

------------

Matias!

The blue mage's face hung before Loraine, teasing. He was smiling like he did in the days before the Jagd. His smile…mischievous and sad at the same time, with the old pride and challenge awaiting anyone who looked at him.

Now she was dead and she'd never get a chance to see that smile again…

She turned around. She was in the black desert of death. She had to cross it, didn't she? To get to the other side, and be reincarnated.

And with every step you took, more of you fell away, until you were an amnesiac husk with nothing to remember about what you were.

"I don't want to cross," she said to thin air. She had a feeling like someone had shrugged at her.

"I'm not going to cross," she repeated, this time, more angrily. "I won't, hear me?"

"You have to," said someone from behind her. She whirled. Her twin was sitting on a flat-topped rock. Her twin, the one who had died when she was twelve and left that unfulfilled gap in her. She thought no one could fill it, but Matias had…

And he'd never know.

"Why?" she challenged. "I don't want to."

"You have to. It's just the rule," Cecile said again. "It's not that hard, Raine."

"Why are you still here then?" demanded the assassin.

"I'm just your spirit guide," Cecile replied with her usual don't-care attitude, flicking back her long silver hair across her archer garb. "Just go, Bunny, I'll meet you up the other side," coaxed her twin, using their childhood nickname for Loraine.

"I can't," replied Loraine stubbornly. "There's a man back there."

"You'll find another one," Cecile answered callously. That decided the hardheaded assassin. This wasn't her twin, just a conjuration. The real Cecile would have listened. She turned away from the desert, away from her twin and began walking away defiantly.

"You can't go, Bunny!" called her twin. "Not unless someone comes for you!" Loraine soldiered on, sticking a finger up at her twin and marching further away from the desert. The further she went, the more like crawling through slime it felt. "Bunny!"

"Sorry, Silly!" she yelled back. "I'm going if someone comes or not!"

"You won't-" Cecile stopped dead. Loraine halted and looked up at what ever it was that had silenced her twin and saw, across a wide stretch of tundra, a unicorn shimmering with magic.

"Holy mother of Mateus," she muttered to herself. "Who'd come for me?" The creature galloped up to her, drew beside her and motioned her to get on.  
"I've only ever ridden a chocobo before!" she protested, but the creature nudged her with its horn. "Get on how-" Suddenly, she was on the shimmering beast's back. She gasped in disorientation, the whirling dizziness of being suddenly teleported onto its back nauseating.

"Get back here, Bunny!" yelled the fake twin harshly, a sudden sharp edge to her voice.

"Up yours!" shot back Loraine. The unicorn began to ride. There was a shriek from behind her, so nerve-scraping she almost screamed.

_Don't look back!!_ She heard the unicorn shout in her head. She didn't find this strange. She was too far gone. Her memory seemed to be slipping.

"Okay," she mumbled, gripping its mane. They seemed to be racing for a gleaming barrier, her vision growing blurrier by the second.

They shattered through. Her memory, her eyesight, everything smashed back into her so forcefully it was as if it was a physical hit, and the sudden numbness swamped her.

Blackness swallowed her; first her mind, then her sight.

-------------

She awoke to the sounds of a crackling fire and snoring, the smells of roast meat and potato and the sight of a roof above her head.

She sat up, clutched her head and groaned in dizziness.

"You're awake, kupo!" exclaimed a voice next to her arm. She shook her head to clear it and looked at the general direction of her elbow to see a little, bright-eyed moogle thief staring up at her in wonder.

"Where the hell am I?" she asked, saying the first thing that came to her head.

"In the temporary camp of Clan Nutsy," said a soft voice. She knew the voice, and her head whipped around to see the ninja who had put a sword through her leaning against the bed she was on.

"You killed me!" she exclaimed, her mind not even caring how that sounded as she lurched up and groped for her katana. It was gone.

"No, I nearly killed you," corrected the ninja quietly. She stared stupidly at the ninja, then the moogle, and forced her vision beyond those two to see various bodies slumped around a dying fire, wrapped in blankets or curled up, leaning against the walls or each other.

"Clan Nutsy?" she asked, her voice more level than she felt as she saw a blond with shocking hair. The moogle nodded happily and said, "That's us, kupo!"

"So, I'm your prisoner?" Loraine remarked. The ninja shook her head.

"You're our new clan member," the ninja informed her casually.

The entire jagd was awakened by a roar as loud as an angry wyrm who has come home to its nest and sat on a bomb which it didn't notice. Okay, louder, then.

"I'm _what_?" howled Loraine, attempting to lynch the ninja as she was held against the wall by the sentries.

"You'll warm to the idea soon enough, kupo!" yelled the little thief as he was bashed by a flailing leg. "It's not so bad!"

"What the hell – oh, _kupo_," said Basil, catching sight of the viera.

"Kupo indeed," agreed Darios glumly.

"Oh, by the high lords of Hell and crud!" yelled Katarina furiously, rising. Made fearless by grouchiness, she advanced toward the screaming assassin and poked her in the stomach with her rod. She stopped temporarily to glare at her, her eyes filled with a demonic glow that boded ill for the rest of the clan.

"What?" she growled.

"You're an ingrate," the summoner declared. "We saved your life! And you're chucking a wobbly fit on us?" Loraine stopped long enough to look astonished.

"You did?" she demanded. "Where's my clan?"

"Here," said Etoile, motioning at the clan members.

"You know what I mean," snarled the assassin. "My real clan."

"We are," said Darios, with extraordinary courage. "Your previous clan left without you." All the fight and anger disappeared with those words. Ingg and Oskar let go. The assassin slumped to her knees.  
"You're lying," she said flatly. More gently than normal, Etoile nudged the Illusionist and gave him a comforting smile. He blushed back and continued,  
"We're not. They think you're dead and they left without you."  
"They wouldn't," Loraine protested. "Matias and Miserie wouldn't and Nils probably wouldn't, if he can get out of dream world."

"They listened to your clan leader. They had no choice."

Loraine's head dropped and she choked back tears.

They had no choice… Matias wouldn't have done this on his own… 

_Miserie wouldn't…_

_But they have! Why?_

_They listened to Sotel…_

_Sotel turned them to believe I was dead…  
Why would they disbelieve him? They saw me fall…_

_They saw me die…_

_And they left my body to the coeurls…_

Traitors! 

Her hand clenched into a fist at her side. Her revenge was sealed, anointed with sorrow.

"I'll be in your clan," she said, looking up, her eyes brimming with anguish and betrayal, her tears threatening to spill over. "Where do I sign?"

Papers were shoved in her hands with a pen, and she scribbled her name across forms and documents. As she signed the final one, she looked up at the blond soldier taking them out of her hands. He squinted at her signature and nodded, looking at her and smiling.

"Loraine's a nice name," he commented.  
"Thanks," she said. "Any other small, irrelevant comments we have to make?" He flushed dully and the mog thief poked her.

"That isn't nice, kupo," he said. "Come on, kupo, lighten up."  
"How can I lighten up?" asked Loraine angrily. The mog thief sighed and stared at her.

"Forget it," he muttered. Then, in a louder voice, he pointed out the members of the clan.

"That's Marche, kupo."

"What? Oh, yeah," Marche said, looking up from the stack of forms.

"Katarina and Etoile kupopo. Katarina is the mass killing maniac-"

"Oi!" snarled the summoner angrily.

"-and Etoile is the kupo one who didn't say oi, kupo," Oskar continued, ignoring the outburst. "That's Darios."

"Hi," said the illusionist nervously, waving from behind a brewing pot of coffee.

"I'm Oskar, kupo," he said, looking up at her and waving. "Kupo!" Then he turned back to the clan. "That's Ingg," he said, motioning at the ninja.

"Hey," said Ingg casually, not looking up from Marche's side.

"…and Basil and Montblanc are those two kupo lazy asses over there, kupo," sighed Oskar. The piles of blankets grunted. One rolled over.

"I'm Loraine," said Loraine lightly. "Hi."

"Welcome to Clan Nutsy, Raine," Darios said, picking the pot of coffee off the stove. "…um, am I allowed to call you that?" he asked hurriedly, seeing the look on her face.

"I'd rather you didn't," she said, forcing herself to be calm. Betrayal still stung.

"Ok," said Marche, ruffling the papers. "What about Rainey?"

"No," Ingg said, elbowing him.

"Lor?"

"Noooo…" groaned Oskar.

"Loz!" exclaimed Kat. They stared at her.

"What?" she asked defensively.

"Nay," muttered Etoile.

"Lozzie!"

"What the hell is with you and 'Loz' anyway?"

"I like that name," scowled the summoner.

"No thanks."

"How about just plain 'Lori'?" suggested Darios. They paused.

"Okay," said Loraine. "I can live with that."

"Lori-kupo! Lori-kupo!" chanted Oskar, falling at her feet. She laughed.

"No need to bow to the goddess," she said airily, and waved him up like a queen to a grovelling subject. He fastened himself to her ankle like a giant green insect. She didn't hurt him, instead, staggered over to the fire and threatened to hold him over it. He dropped off hurriedly and hugged her again before escaping.

"You know what? I think you'll get along well in here," remarked Etoile, grinning.

"Perhaps," she remarked noncommittally.

------------

You did pretty well in that battle then, Lori," said Etoile, sitting down next to the depressed assassin.

"Really?" asked the other viera miserably. "Thanks."

"You don't have to be so depressed the rest of the time, you know," snapped the sniper, after a very long silence had worn out her patience.

"Yes I do," muttered Loraine. "I was abandoned by them." Etoile considered this for a long period of time. Again, she was about to lose her temper, but instead, she approached it from a different mental direction. She was shocked and a bit sad.

"You loved one of them, didn't you?" she stated. Loraine jerked.

"Why?" she asked guardedly, defensive.

"You seem like it," shrugged Etoile, not wanting to tell the assassin the real reasons she saw.

"So what if I did?" challenged the assassin. "Do you mean I should just give up on them?"

"I'm not saying that."

"Then what _are_ you saying?" snapped the assassin, rising to her feet and waving her hands about. "That all we can do is forget?"

"I'm saying you should stop living in the past and move on!" yelled Etoile, her temper stoked. "You can brood and mope about it all you want, but it's not going to help you in the now!"  
"I can still fight, and talk, and live all right!"

"That's not what I mean! Your social interaction is kaput! Everyone's worried about you and how you sit there in a quiet corner by yourself for ages! They want to know if you're all right!" The sniper gestured back at the camp. Loraine looked stunned.

"Why?" she demanded.

"For the same reasons your old clan would; you're now one of us." Etoile stepped over to Loraine and sighed. "Look. We care, and if you would care back just a little, I think you could get used to the idea of us being your clan." Putting her arm around the other viera's shoulders, she began to forcibly steer her back to camp. "You're coming with me, missy. It's Darios's turn to cook tonight and I wouldn't miss it for the world." The sniper sniggered and winked at the assassin. This was her social induction into the clan, in a way.

"Really?" asked Loraine, playing along. "Why, is he absolutely crap at it?"

"No, it's rather his technique…" Etoile exhaled as she stepped into the camp. "You'll understand when you see him."

And Loraine understood. And for the first time since joining Clan Nutsy, she laughed with them, at them and for them.

In her heart, she nursed that secret love for Matias, but kept it locked away from their worried smiles in a place no-one could touch.


	7. Present Day Misunderstandings

Disclaimer: I own nuthin'. Nuthin' I tell ya! grovels in front of paper effigy of Square Enix symbol

Alie: You own something. Your dignity. Now get up before you lose however little you have left. nudge

sob You don't understand me! No one does!  
Loraine: Am I allowed to poke her with the sharp end of this? waves katana

Alie: shrug Why the hell not…the author's suffering critical depression and writer's block, kind of.

Loraine: Okay. Want to join me?

Alie: pulls out knife Do I ever!

As the author was repeatedly stabbed by her muse and one of her main characters, she got an Idea. And this Idea festered and grew into something more.

So we bring you the story…

Mako-Streak - You shall never be a leech as long as you keep on reviewing. evilgrin No, Raine doesn't mind you calling her that…

Loraine: But I mind _you_ calling me that, my friend. waves katana dangerously close

(gulp) Um…well, yes, Darios is quite adorable, isn't he? All the blue mages seem a bit endearing… P Anyway, if your exams are here, Mako…are they? If they are, then good luck… if not, then my brain has gone crackers again, so ignore me…

In the present, now that we have all that "flashback" out of the way… 

--------------

"Are we there yet?" asked Etoile, stripping an innocent yellow bloom of its petals.

"No!" snarled Marche, all the time surreptitiously turning the map around and trying to figure out where the hell they were.

"Are we there yet?" enquired Katarina mock-solicitously.

"NO!" yelled the blond archer in irritation.

"Are we there yet?" Loraine teased.

"_NO_!" exploded Marche. "No, we are not there yet, and I would appreciate it if you would stop asking already!"

"Okay, okay! Chill, chief," Loraine said, raising her hands in a fake gesture of peace.

"I will, once you stop asking!" growled the human. "And don't call me 'chief'!"

"Yes, chief," said Loraine with a little annoying grin, hidden by the scarf. In response, Marche gave a roar of frustration, threw his hands up in the air and stalked off to find Montblanc.

"Ooh, Marche's kupo _pissed_," laughed Oskar.

"See if we care," snorted Etoile. "He deserves it."  
"He does?" asked Darios.

"Oh, yes, Darios the thick, my dear lad, he does," said Katarina patiently, in the tone of voice reserved for the mentally deficit and/or unbalanced.  
"And he deserves it kupo because…" Basil said, raising a little eyebrow.

"Simply because he is Marche," sighed Loraine, lacing her fingers behind her head. "That is reason enough, believe me." The three vieras sat down on a log by the side of the road and, heaving a sigh of relief, shrugged their packs off. Oskar followed suit and dropped onto the green-ish grass in front of them, staring up at the sky and remarking, "That cloud looks like Marche when he just kupo wakes up, kupo." Basil rolled his eyes, but slung his pack down and sat. A shadow fell over the five and a sheepish-looking Darios, just as the vieras delved into Etoile's pack to get food.

"Would you three be the reason Marche is running round screaming curses at Montblanc, saying that the map is royally screwed?" asked Ingg, quite calmly.

"Perhaps," said Katarina, not looking up from the arduous task at hand.

"He just bashed Montblanc over the head with his bow," added the ninja, looking back over her shoulder. Darios, at the mention of that, edged away from Etoile a bit, remembering the pub fight.

"Ooh! Fight! Fight!" Summoner and sniper alike leapt up and ran for the scene down the road. Loraine got up, a tad more sedately than the mad duo, brushed her front off and began to walk after them, pulling her pack out from behind the log.

"Basil, guard the packs," she said, grinning. The gunner rolled his eyes and sighed, leaning onto Kat's pack and making obscure motions at the pair down the road. The blue mage stared, bemused, at them.

"You stay here," admonished Ingg, taking the viera's arm.

"But I wanna go see them fight!" protested Loraine, tugging at the ninja's grip.

"You're staying," repeated the human. Grumbling slightly, Loraine sat back down, ungracefully as she could, and scowled at the ninja.

"Why?"

"Because Marche is getting beaten up, not vice versa, and it's no fun to watch," said Ingg evasively.

"Really, kupo?" asked Oskar sceptically.

"Okay, it was because I wanted to talk to you," sighed Ingg. "Lori, you know that assassin, who's wanted for murder, Killer Rayne? I was just thinking, she looked remarkably like you…" Her voice trailed off.

"You don't want Lori-kupo to be mistaken for her, kupo?" asked the intuitive moogle thief. Mutely, Ingg nodded.

"Oh," said Loraine blankly. "So what?"

"What do you kupo mean 'so what'?" demanded Oskar. "We don't want you to end up in jail, kupo!"

"No, I mean, what am I supposed to do about it?" snapped the assassin. "I can't help the way I look!"

"You could get a disguise," suggested Darios.

"What kind of disguise?" asked Loraine, glancing narrowly at the Blue Mage, who gulped.

------------

"I feel stupid," muttered Loraine as they crept into the outskirts of Baguba.

"Get used to it. Oh, and don't look so uncomfortable. It suits you," said Etoile, not very comfortingly.

"I still feel idiotic," repeated the viera.

"Shut up, would you?" sighed Katarina. "C'mon. It's not that bad."

"You're not the one in this," snarled Loraine, very waspishly.

"It's not too bad, kupo. Look, kupo calm down and stop whispering already! Kupopo!" sighed the thief. However, he reached up and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Thanks," she whispered, squeezing back.

"I'd like to book a campsite for ten, please?" a very beat-up Marche was saying in the meantime.

"Ssssorry," drawled the camp keeper, a very bored-looking bangaa Defender. "Only have a campssssite for five…but the inn is vacant," he added hastily, seeing the look on Marche's face.

"Put it this way, kupo!" said Montblanc, pulling himself up so he could see the bangaa over the counter. "Either you will give us a campsite for ten, _or we will vacate one ourselves_," he said menacingly, glaring evilly at the bangaa. The Defender gulped, but managed to muster the courage to say, "That'ssss coercion! I can call my sssssuperior!"

"You do that, and you'll have the wrath of Clan Nutsy on your hands," threatened Loraine, pushing to the front and forgetting her role as 'sweet, passive white mage'.

"Lori!" hissed Ingg, grabbing the viera's arm.

Too late. The Defender at the desk was staring, agape, at the white mage. Loraine blanched.

"Oh, coeurl crap," cursed Katarina.

"Killer Rayne! It'sss Killer Rayne! The assssasssin!" the bangaa yelled in terror.

"What? No-" gasped Loraine, as various clanners sprang up, surrounding her.

"Stop!" yelled Ingg, launching forward and knocking her way through the clanners, creating a swath of stunned warriors as she lashed out with her still-sheathed katanas, aiming to stun rather than injure. "She's not Killer Rayne! You're making a mistake!"

"But she matches the poster!" yelled a Black Mage, shoving the poster into the startled white mage's face. A fighter and a soldier came up and grabbed the viera's arms behind her.

"Get off!" yelled Loraine, pulling away. Surrounded by a sea of faces, some grim, some wary, she waved the Judge Staff around, feeling ridiculous.

"Killer Rayne's an assassin, you idiots!" shouted the ninja, pushing her way through until she was side by side with Loraine.

"She could have changed job classes any time she wanted!" came a voice from the crowd, followed by a muffled groan of pain. Soon, Etoile and Katarina had joined the duo in the middle. Oskar was to follow, a worried-looking Darios in tail, and before long, the whole Clan Nutsy was surrounding the viera, a shield from the ring of bounty hunters.

"You're making a mistake," Marche said, a hint of. "She's not Killer Rayne."

"Clan Nutsy?" asked a voice, and Marche breathed a sigh of relief as the throng began to back away a bit…then gulped as he saw Shara approaching.

"S-Shara," he stammered. "Where's Ritz?"

"Cursing your name and you to Exodus," said the sniper. "What's going on?"

"They're sheltering the wanted assassin," shouted an archer.

"Killer Rayne?" asked Shara. Marche and the other members of the clan shook their heads violently, while the throng nodded.

"Lori just looks a bit like her, that's all," protested Darios.

"A bit, kupo?" Basil muttered sceptically. The next second, he winced as five different people bashed him on the top of the head.

"Well, she's not Killer Rayne," said Shara, with that tone of such finality that everyone stopped dead.

"How do you know?" asked a fencer, after a long silence.

"This is Clan Nutsy," the sniper said forcefully. "You can forgive them a bit of eccentricity occasionally, but they wouldn't be doing anything highly illegal now, _would they_?" Such was the inflection she employed with those words that everyone finally quieted down and shuffled off, still shooting deadly glances at Loraine.

"You saved my hide, Shara," said Loraine, looking sheepish. "Thanks."

"Stay out of trouble!" emphasised the other viera. "And what are you doing in that ridiculous white mage costume?"

"Darios's idea," said Loraine, shooting a murderous glance at the blue mage, who cowered. "The robes are _really_ annoying me."

"Let's get you changed into something more comfortable," suggested Marche.

"Yes!" agreed Katarina. "You look bloody ridiculous in that!"

"Finally, we admit, you look like an idiot," Etoile said, flashing a grin at the assassin-in-disguise, who looked as though she was about to explode.

"Kupo," was all the moogles said, nodding emphatically. Ingg sighed and put a hand to her forehead.

----------------

"So, Shara, kupo, what's the kupo news?" asked Montblanc, over the table of the eatery they had chosen to inhabit that night.

"Not good," the green-clad viera said, shaking her head as she sipped her drink. "They escaped again."

"Where to?" demanded Loraine incredulously, now in the more comfortable clothing of an archer. Ingg had once more forbidden her from donning the assassin gear, just in case.

"Jagd Ahli," said Shara, trying to sound casual. However, the way she fiddled with her cutlery betrayed her feelings at this new development.

"They ran back to the jagds," sighed Ingg wearily. "They never learn. My brother should have known better."

"Ingg, I don't think your brother is among them," Shara said quietly. "The clan leader has really gone insane. We saw a blue mage and a hunter escape the camp in the middle of the night."

"What about Miserie?" demanded Loraine. She might have hated the clan, but her feelings for its members were undiminished. She still worried about that withdrawn, quiet red mage, just as she felt so deeply for Matias. Shara frowned.

"A red mage?" The sniper shook her head. Then she paused.

"Oh. Yes, her," she said, in a tone of voice that instilled dread in Loraine's heart.

"What?" demanded Katarina, leaning over. "Don't keep us in the dark, Shara!"

"She's gone," the other viera said emptily.  
"What do you mean, gone?" asked Etoile.

"Just…gone. We don't know what happened to her. We just didn't see her any more," said Shara quietly.

"Oh," was all Loraine said, slumping back onto the hard wood of the bench she sat on. Oskar patted her on the back gently. She gave the moogle thief a weak smile and stared at the plate of food before her. The others saw her morose mood and decided to leave her alone.

"Well…" said Marche slowly. "What other news is there?"

"Nothing good," Shara said briefly. "We have to keep moving. I can rent chocobos for us,"

"Why didn't you kupo think of that before, kupo Marche?" asked Basil.

"Well…I don't personally like chocobo riding," muttered the blond archer. Indeed, he seemed a bit paler at the mention of the birds.

"Why?" asked Darios. In the middle of the conversation, Loraine muttered a hasty apology and got up. Oskar followed suit, silently, as she began to walk away.

"It's not that comfortable," mumbled Marche.

"Rubbish," snorted Katarina, shovelling chocobo and coeurl omelette into her mouth.

"I just don't…"

"You're scared of chocobos, aren't you, Marche?" shot back Etoile. The archer blanched.

"No! I'm not-" he began hastily, but Montblanc sniggered.

"You are, kupo, aren't you?"

"No I'm not!"

"Are kupo too!"

"Are not!"

"Are kupo too!"

"Are not!"

"Are kupo too-"

"Are kupo not – I mean, are not!"

"Are too, kupo!" laughed Basil.

"Are not! I am not, I repeat, _not _scared of chocobos!"

"Are kupo too-"

"Shut up or I'll dock your clan allowance!" threatened Marche, livid. That shut the moogles up for a little bit before Basil whispered, "Are too, kupo."

Ingg got up and sighed as a fight broke out between Marche and the moogles. Darios was pulled onto Marche's side by the clan leader, Etoile and Katarina teamed up as a mercenary force and Shara dragged them all outside.

It was only then that she realised Loraine and Oskar were missing.

"Sweet mother of Mateus," she hissed to herself, pushing her way to the exit. "Why does that viera always have to rebel!"

---------------

"Go away, Oskar," Loraine said emptily. The little moogle followed doggedly, tracing her steps and managing to keep pace somehow.

"No, kupo," he answered stubbornly. "I don't want you to feel alone, kupo."

"Ah, but Oskar, I am alone," she said bleakly, turning to face him. In the half-light, she looked like a shade, her face creased with pain.

"No, you're not, kupo. You make yourself alone, kupo, but you're really not." He walked towards her a little more and looked up. "What do you think, kupo?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, continuing her walk once more.

"About what happened to her, kupo. Miserie, kupo."

"I don't know what to think," she said bleakly. "But I know that Sotel has gone insane if he's sent away all his closest comrades."

"Kupo," Oskar chastised her. "They left of their own accord, kupo."

"Then why this sneaking away at night, and this mysterious disappearance?"

"He wouldn't let them go, kupo, maybe?" suggested Oskar.

"Likely," snorted Loraine. There was a rustle behind her. She turned, to see a dragoon, a paladin and an elementalist behind her, their faces grim. The dragoon was holding a crinkled poster in his hand. She looked at him.

"Rayne, we're taking you in," the paladin declared. She turned back, only to find her route of escape blocked by another trio of clanners.

"Not this again," she groaned. Her hand went to her katana. It wasn't there. Instead, there was the Marduk Bow slung across her back. Not her weapon of choice at all. "Oh, no. Oskar, go!" A judge appeared. The laws were no Summon, Berserk or Dmg2 Animal, none of which were in her favour, drawing a grimace to her face.

"I'm staying, kupo," said the moogle, drawing his Cinquedea. "After all, kupo, what are friends for?" She smiled at him from the corner of her mouth.

"Indeed," she said, and drew the bow. Ready, aim, _fire_. The elementalist sent a searing Fire Whip her way. She dodged with true assassin reflexes, shot the paladin just as he began a Holy Blade that would have finished her off and made for the roofs. Oskar, nimble, small and quick, slashed at the legs of an Illusionist and did a Dagger on the Dragoon, Disabling him.

"Duck, kupo!" she heard him yell, and did so as a Ninja Knife went flying over her head to stick into the Soldier in front of her. Scrambling up onto the ledge, she yelped as a bullet dug into her shoulder and tried to get further up. However, her arm seared with pain, and seemed to be going numb. Too late she realised it was a Stopshot. Her body froze stiff as the Stop seeped in; she was frozen on that ledge, unable to move.

"Lori-kupo!" she heard the moogle yell. She couldn't move. As he sprang up on the ledge beside her, a Shining Air hammered the little moogle and he stumbled, blinded. _Oskar_, she tried to say, but she was completely frozen. Why did they have to have a gunner? _Why_?

A Deluge splashed down on them, numbing her and, to her horror, sending the little thief plummeting down. Through an awning, into a crate, and a roll down the road ensured that Oskar was in no position to fight. As a hunter shot a Sonic Boom at her, jerking her dangerously close to the edge of the ledge, a Soldier pulled her up and KO'd her with a swift slash. Unconsciousness rolled in.

Bloody looks.

-------------

"Get _down _here!" yelled Ingg, her katanas flashing in the dull moonlight. The paladin and the elementalist on the roof looked to be in a moment of indecision before the paladin pulled the limp, trussed form of Loraine over his shoulder and began to walk off. She was about to spring up after them before she remembered the little moogle lying unconscious down the road. Sheathing the Silkmoon and the Masamune, she began, first to walk back, then to sprint as she saw a human bend over the little moogle's body.

"Don't you dare," she hissed, her voice sweetly sibilant as she tackled the would-be scavenger. She heard a grunt of pain as they rolled down the road and looked down, with a satisfied smile, at her victim. Her smugness melted away as the scavenger's features became more pronounced with the increasing moonlight, to be replaced by wonder and a little shock.

"Hello, brother," she said, choking slightly.


	8. Reflections & Repurcussions

Disclaimer: I own nothing of FFTA except a tiny cartridge with the sticker on it. FFTA, Marche, Shara and all those other miscellaneous personages who I don't seem to own are property of Square Enix. Yadda yadda yadda, now can I have my cookie already! Mmmm…cookie…

I have only the hugest apologies to make to all the readers out there. I'm sorry I haven't updated for…well…months. I;ve been caught up in school, farewell parties and debating, three things you have to live with. Leastways, for me.

To all you Nils fans out there…beware… XD

To my reviewers:

Mako-Streak: Let's just say….Marche + chocobos not fun for Marche.

The reviewer I still insist on referring to as BrokenblueHeart (great, even my capital letters are screwed, aren't I stupid.): Thanks for reviewing!

All my reviewers, you keep me alive. Review and I may stand a chance at posting more regularly. No promises, though…I'm really sorry to say that updates will be irregular at best. I know, it makes me sad too.

Anyway! Story!

"Oh, god…" mumbled Loraine, as lancing pain shot into her shoulder, through her neck and around her wrists and ankles. Wait, no, she hurt all over. And where the hell was she?

The bouncing gait and yellow feathers. She was on a chocobo. Lying on a chocobo. Where? She had been captured by that damn clan who thought she was Killer Rayne…oh, bloody hell.

This was not a good day.

"Well, my good fellow Haiver, what are you doing here?" sneered the ninja. She saw her brother flush dully and got up, staring at him all the while.

"Nothing," he muttered. Even though he was taller and bigger than her, always had been, she had the edge in verbal battles.

"Liar," she scoffed. "You've always been purposeful."

"Nothing," he repeated, climbing to his feet and brushing himself off. The blue mage uniform looked tattered and worn, as if it hadn't been changed in ages, and he looked quite similar. He seemed tired, and his face was carved with anguish where time and emotion had stretched him out.

"Come on, brother dearest," sighed Ingg, putting an arm around his shoulders. "If you won't tell me what you're doing, then you can at least do me a favour." Guiding him towards the little moogle's body, she waved at it. "Heal him. Please."

Matias gave her a look and bent down beside the tiny moogle form, his hands moving complicated swirls around it. He was conjuring up a wind.

"White Wind," he said softly. The wind took form and colour, the pure white colour of angels, and swirled until Oskar stirred and moaned, "Oh, kupo, did you get the licence plate of that cart?" very drunkenly. Then the wind died away.  
"Done. Are you happy?" asked Matias tiredly.

"No. I'm not. Where's your hunter friend?" she asked. He blanched.

"Who told you about that?" he croaked. Ingg felt a small spark of sympathy light the old sibling love, and he looked so helpless that she just wanted to pat him like a hurt animal. Instead, she gave him a hug. She felt his body jerk in shock, then he hugged her back.

"Hey, who's the scallywag who spirited away me buddy – agh!" yelped a very shocked hunter, emerging from around an alleyway corner, a small bag by his side. Then he softened. "A reunion. Aw, this is a Kodak moment!"

"What's Code-ack, kupo?" asked Oskar, now less groggy as he looked up at Nils from his seat on the floor.

"I dinnae know meself, lad, but it be glorious," exclaimed the human, bending down and picking the little moogle up. "And who might you be?"

"Oskar," said the thief. Meanwhile, the siblings let go and looked each other up and down.

"You've grown," they exclaimed simultaneously, and both smiled.

"What brings you, my good brother, to this neck of the woods?" asked Ingg, after she'd suppressed her own humour.

"The same thing I should be asking you, my dear sister," he replied, raising an eyebrow. His face creased with worry. "Is everything all right?"

"Yes," she said, surprised. "Why?"

"Then you're lucky," he said darkly. She opened her mouth to ask why, then decided against it.

"Come on, brother," she said instead. "There's problems. One of my clan members has been kidnapped. We're going to find her." She turned to the little moogle. "Oskar, kindly detach yourself from the poor human's purse, run back to camp and tell everyone we're going to look for her."

"Okay, kupo," said the thief obediently. However, as he walked off, Nils said, "Hey, come back here with my jellybean sack!"

"Oskar!" snapped Ingg. "I told you to detach yourself from his purse!" Very reluctantly, the thief did so and began running back.

"I didn't know soft toys could scurry!" Nils called after the moogle, who stopped briefly to stick his tongue out at the hunter.

"Kupo! Marche!"

The blond looked up from the effort of trying to pour healing potions over his back to see Oskar running towards him.

"What?" he asked, wincing as Katarina, rather roughly, rubbed the content of a bottle across the various bullet marks on his arms, whispering all the time rather darkly about the stupidity of human males.

"Lori-kupo been kidnapped, kupo," gasped Oskar. The summoner and the archer gaped. Or rather, the archer gaped and the summoner groaned.

"By idiots who still think she's Killer Rayne?" she asked. This was affirmed. Kat threw up her arms in disgust, screwed close the jar of salve and had the camp mustered in a matter of minutes. Etoile looked furious.

"No one kidnaps one of us and gets away with it!" she yelled.

"What she said, kupo," agreed Basil.

"Well, we'd better move fast, then, or else we'll have no trail to chase, will we?" remarked Katarina tartly.

"Whee!" yelled Nils, airborne on the back of one of his dragons. The creature's pace quickened as they saw a convoy in the distance: a clan, laughing, chattering, a seemingly normal clan except for the figure of a viera, tied across the back, their lanterns a beacon in the dusk landscape.

Matias and Ingg hung on behind him, the blue mage calm and collected, the ninja's eyes screwed tightly shut and her brain busy in prayer.

"Why didn't I think of this before?" shouted Matias jubilantly.

"Because of bomblifulness!" screeched Nils. Ingg yelled, "You maniac!" just before they tipped into a dive and all the rest of her scathing remarks were ripped away by the sight of the ground rushing towards them.

"Kamikazeeee!" howled the hunter, swooping towards the clan; who were caught off balance by the attack. The chocobo screamed shrilly and bolted, dragging a white mage who was holding on to its reins off with it for a short distance before the mage let go. The clanners raced after the chocobo, a couple stopping to help their battered comrade.

"Who's your friend?" asked Matias over the howl of the wind. Ingg hesitated. Her brother would finally know that all his heartbreak and anguish had been misplaced.

Her brother was frightening when he was angry. She didn't want to see that. But she owed him the truth, after years of betrayal, seeing the hurt and pain in his eyes as she backstabbed him and shot him down again and again.

"Matias?" she said softly.

"What?" he said, turning back and grinning. "Who is it?" Seeing the happiness on his face, the starlight reflected in his eyes in the thrill of the ride, she looked away. Not now.

"I'll tell you later," she muttered, her voice a bare whisper. The pounding of her heart changed to panic as she realized Loraine wasn't masked at all. She would tell him now or endure his anger forever.

His face froze slightly, the grin looking hurt, but he shrugged it off.

"Okay, if you don't want to tell me, don't." His voice had developed a painful inflection to it.

"I'm sorry, Mati-" She braced herself as Nils guided the drake after the fleeing bird, oblivious to the conversation behind him. The dragon's claws barely raked the chocobo, sending the captive on its back into sudden chills.

An illusionist and a soldier materialized in front of the pack-bird, grabbing its reins as it ran on and vaulting onto its back. The soldier began guiding the panicked bird towards the forest as the illusionist, with a wave of his – her? hand used a touch of the magic to seemingly vanish the bird.

"I didn't know illusionists could do that, Matti boy!" yelled Nils.

"They can sometimes!" Matias shouted back, his eyes shooting a fiery glare at his twin sister.

"What do we do now?" called Nils.

"Track the clan, later! We can't chase an invisible bird!" Obediently, the hunter wheeled the wyrm around and sent it chasing the wind back along the road to Baguba.

"There's a dragon!" yelled Katarina, glaring at the sky and drawing her Rod.

"Don't!" yelled Darios, grabbing her arm. "There's people on it!" He looked down at where his hand was holding her bare arm and up to her face. A hot blush was spreading across her face, just as his own cheeks burst into flame.

She drew her rod and whacked him solidly, sending him sprawling backwards.

"You _creep_!" she shrieked, but she was still blushing. "You _pervert_!" Running up to him, she raised her rod and would have pounded him to a pulp if Etoile hadn't come up and managed to forcibly restrain her. Darios scrambled backward, as the moogles began to snort with suppressed laughter and Marche looked away.

"No! No! Don't kill him, Kat! We still need him!" yelled the sniper. The summoner looked back over her shoulder, into the eyes of the sniper, and saw an almost imperceptible flash in the eyes, accompanied by a little nod. Slowly, Katarina dropped her arm from its striking position and sighed.

The whole clan, as a single entity, ducked as the wyrm taxied over and landed a while down. A hunter and blue mage in worn clothes jumped off, along with a familiar ninja. The hunter seemed to be comforting the creature before it took to the air again, in the direction of Cyril.

"How'd it go?" Marche asked the ninja as she approached.

"Hm? Oh. Not well. We lost them," Ingg said briefly, as she kept walking. Marche looked at her advancing back in confusion.

"It's that time of month, kupo," Montblanc said softly, patting Marche as far up the back as he could manage. He was whacked by Etoile for this insolence.

"Marche of Clan Nutsy?" asked a voice so startlingly like Ingg's, yet definitely male, that he turned around half expecting to see the ninja there. Instead, the tattered blue mage in ragged clothes was standing there with an outstretched hand. The facial resemblance to Ingg was striking. Her twin brother, perhaps?

"Ah," he said slowly. "Are you Matias?"

"Yes," answered the blue mage. "That's Nils. He's mostly insane." The hunter was peering at Etoile, and Katarina was preparing to give him a concussion. He paused. "Would you be considering recruiting any time soon?"

"You-?" Marche choked. "You'd like to-"  
"Well, if you want," Matias said, his voice suddenly dropping as he hung his head. "I've done things I'm not proud of. But if you want to accept us…" He stood straighter and his face grew prouder, his stance stronger. "I'm a very experienced blue mage with some Fighter background, and Nils comes with his entire monster bank account." He grinned disarmingly. "And if that isn't a bribe I don't know what is."

"You're in," answered Marche, rummaging through his pack for enrolment forms.

When the kidnapped clanner awoke, she was still bound hand and foot, but leaning against a tree instead of a nauseating chocobo ride. Obviously they had stopped.

"Killer Rayne?" asked someone at the edge of Loraine's vision. Loraine kept silent and mouthed to herself unflattering opinions about these bounty hunters.

"I know you're awake," continued the voice. It was soft and female, with a kind of nervousness to it and a strange familiarity. Good, Loraine thought grimly, before realizing that she should be encouraging people_ against_ the idea that she was Killer Rayne.

"'m not Killer Rayne," she muttered, her voice slurred from lack of use.

"Whoever you are, just eat," the voice said.

"Please?" asked the nervous female, when she received no response.

"No," growled Loraine.

"Look, if you want to get your strength back, just eat," pleaded the female. That had an effect on the stubborn viera,

Getting her strength back…maybe at one stage she could make a run for it? All the same, it was good to at least pretend to cooperate. Unwillingly, she nodded.

The blindfold was removed to show a little viera, slender, almost familiar, definitely nervous. She could see the girl shaking! As a result, the first thing out of her mouth once the blindfold was off was, "Do I know you?"

The viera's eyes widened in disbelief. "Raine?" Now, the realization of who that voice belonged to hit her like one of Kat's stray Ifrits between the eyes.

"Miserie!"


	9. Rescue Plans

Disclaimer: No, I still do not own FFTA…I may cry over this! In fact, I think I will! )(cries)(

To my reviewers:

Mako-Streak: I am the evil lady of cliffhangers, as much as I hate to admit it. Hopefully, this chapter will be posted soon, or I may have to stab myself.

Jhon 117: My stories are confusing, weird, and, above all, full of quirky characters. So far Nils seems to be the fan favourite!

'twas a fyne day when thee tale of Loraine, the Lady of Violence, commenced, settyng a fair cast uponne the – OW! Okay, okay, geez…

Alie: Write properly or I may have to eviscerate you. And maybe some of your reviewers will have to as well.

Yes ma'am…

* * *

"What is with Ingg lately?" hissed Katarina, sending a sharp elbow into Darios's ribs, making him wheeze. "She's been all moody and quiet since last night!"

"Last night was when her brother arrived, kupo," explained Oskar patiently. "Sometimes you're as blind as you seem to think Darios-kupo is, kupo." This earned him a glare from the two viera, a sheepish grin from Darios, a pair of incredulous looks from Montblanc and Basil and a worried glance from Marche before the clan leader turned back to his maps.

"Kupo, you're off your head, kupo," commented Basil, chancing a look at the sniper and the summoner before shuddering. "Never, ever say that within a mile of them, kupo."

"I can afford to say a lot, kupo," said Oskar, grinning, and tipping his chair back. "I know things about them they would kupo _kill_ to keep secret." At that, Katarina jerked up from her seat and swiped the Mythril Staff before her like a Spear, with an outraged yell.

"I ought to _kill_ you, you dastardly little white fluffball! I'm going to string you up by your heels and leave you to – " With that, Kat's coherence degenerated into a mixture of insane profanity, threats, and mad staff-waving that finally resulted in Montblanc, Basil, Marche and Darios having to hold her down and Oskar aside with the innocent grin plastered all over his face which was rapidly wiped away as Etoile, rising out of the scrum with her bow very casually nocked, began to run at him.

He ran. What smart mog wouldn't, with a mad viera like Etoile on your trail?

* * *

"What in Exodus' name are you doin-" began Loraine, but she was cut off by Miserie in one sharp motion, who leaned forward and motioned her closer. The assassin bent forward.

"Raine, no one knows you're not Killer Rayne here. If they see me talking to you, I'm… I'm as dead as a KO in a jagd, all right?" whispered Miserie. "And my name isn't Miserie. Not here. It's Eldalie. They all call me El, or Li."

Loraine nodded, somewhat confused, before leaning back against the tree trunk. "Why couldn't you just tell them I'm not Rayne?" she said irritably. "It'd save me a lot of pain."

"Belief is a powerful thing, Rayne," Miserie - or rather, El – said in reply, rising. "I'll leave the food here. You can just reach it? Ok."

* * *

"Belief is a powerful thing, Ingg," murmured Matias, running his fingers along the blade gently, belying his shaking hand as he pressed it to her throat a little more firmly. "I believed she was dead for so many moons years. Sixteen moons since yesterday. I even memorised the date she vanished from my life forever. The tenth of Sagemoon, in the third year of Remedi's Rule. And I never stopped hoping." He swallowed. Ingg, unperturbed by the saber on her windpipe, watched his eyes, her face placid. Her brother hadn't used profanity much, unless he was really upset. Currently, his emotions were crossing between overwhelming happiness and soul-deep rage, swinging an unsteady dance between the two. She moved into the silence that fell as his emotions warred, like a hawk spotting the kill.

"Yes. We couldn't let her go back, and be driven out by your clan leader. He would've turned a cold shoulder to her, and he would've-"

"You think I care about half of what Sotel _does_ any more?" yelled the blue mage, pulling the Shamshir away and stabbing it into the ground. "I don't! If he had done that, I'd just have run away sooner, with Raine! I couldn't let her go! Do you know how much she means to me!" He paused for breath, and sighed. "No. No, you don't. You've never known what the hell love is, all your life, so you wouldn't understand what I'm feeling!"

"True! But I wouldn't send her back, not if it meant she would be happy with you, not if it meant she would have been happy forever, not for all the gil in Ivalice!" yelled Ingg, advancing like a stalking Panther, grabbing him by the shoulders. "And do you know why?"

"Why?" he shouted back, jabbing her in the chest so hard she nearly stumbled back. "Why, because you didn't want someone to be happy when you weren't? Because you were so-"

"Shut. Up," she ground out, cutting him off mid-sentence with a few choice jabs of her own. "Think beyond yourself for once. Raine was recovering from two mortal wounds-"

"That you put in her!" he shot back, outraged.

"Yes, I did," she acknowledged through clenched teeth. "That aside. She was recovering from two mortal wounds. She was recovering from mental injury and a lot of inner pain, that your _precious_ clan caused her."

"What inner pain?" he asked bitterly. "The only inner pain was what you caused her by ripping her away from a clan who loved her, nearly killing her, and turning her against her former clan."

"The inner pain that you caused, Mat," said Ingg bleakly. "If she had chosen, at that moment when she was coughing blood onto the streets we played on when we were kids, to live, and go, and spend eternity with you, only to waste away and die the next day, would it have been worth it? Instead, she lived. And she'll meet you again. Isn't that what you want?"

"No," he growled. "You've got it all wrong. You could've given her to us and not told us, told me, a lie about her being dead!"

"And you know what Sotel would have done?" she hissed, one hand fastening and unfastening around the hilt of her Masamune. "He would've turned her back. And she'd be clanless. And if you had followed, he would have put out every notice in town, denouncing you as a wanted criminal. You and her both. Sotel seems, to me, to be exactly the type to do that. He wouldn't care about the consequences, but under no circumstances would he let you go. He would have you, or no one at all. Who chose your clan name? He did. Who made the decisions? He did. Who chose who stayed or went? He did. If he had to, he would have dragged you back kicking and screaming, and if it meant he had to clap you in irons, he would, just to make you stay. And he wouldn't give two hoots about her. She failed once, whose to say she wouldn't fail again?" She took a deep breath. Ingg rarely spoke much in the company of her clan, but when she argued with her brother, words turned to razors in her mouth. "What I'm trying to say…not very well, I suppose…Is that Sotel doesn't care. He turns her away. You go to join her, he drags you back. That's it. The sad truth. He doesn't care about you as a person. He cares about those who he thinks are strong, the ones who will make his clan great."

* * *

"Killer Rayne, get up," growled the Soldier, giving her a rather unceremonious kick. Loraine grunted and slowly stretched burning muscles, rather painfully, and staggered to her feet.

"Faster!" She sucked in her breath sharply as the flat edge of a rapier hit across her ribs, a burning brand on her chocobo-riding bruises. Administering a glare to the Elementalist, she aimed a kick at the other viera, who danced out of the way and back, scowling.

"No time to be funny, Rayne. We're going to get you to the Cyril Watch as soon as possible, and you'll be safely locked up, so you can pay for all the crimes I-"

"Didn't commit?" interjected Loraine sarcastically. "Yeah, yeah. Look, I know you've heard it already, but here's the truth one more time. You stupid flan-brained morons have the wrong viera. My name is Loraine Thrieltalne. I'm not Killer Rayne. I'm just a Sniper. All right?"

"Shut up!" shouted the Elementalist, and hit her again. This time, Loraine stomped, which caught the other viera on a slipper-clad foot. She howled, and hit her again, drawing a searingly painful line on Loraine's shoulders. Hissing, Loraine tried to claw her, but the Soldier and a Fighter intervened, dragging her back from the other viera. "Just get her on the chocobo, away from Eloise!"

Privately, the assassin sniggered. The other viera had her comeuppance, and if she tried anything else with that damn rapier, she was going to suffer a little more than a few bruised toes. Actually, screw 'a little'. Make that _significantly_ more.

Once they were on their way, Miserie – El – drew level with her, also on a chocobo of her own.

"Well done," El said dryly. "You've been able to make two enemies so far."

"Excellent," answered Loraine, just as sarcastically. "At this rate, they'll be tripping over each other for a chance to kill me."

"Not really," the other viera said, a tad thoughtfully, and rather worriedly. "But Eloise has a nasty streak, and she's a real bully. She won't hesitate to use that rapier, and she desperately wants to beat you black and blue with it. So watch out tonight."

"Thanks for the advice, Mi – I mean, El," said Loraine casually. "Don't they get suspicious watching us talk?"

"No, because I explained last night that I'm trying to get you to confess where you hid the bodies of Enrique and Muglio, that Beastmaster/Animist duo that was murdered a few weeks back, and I'm hoping to bait you into it by conversation," answered El, rather absent-mindedly. Loraine developed a sudden and loud hacking fit, which the white mage blinked at. "Cough? I developed a cough cure-"

"No thanks," gasped the assassin. "I'm all fine."

"Really?" asked El. "I can even cast Esuna, I find that works-"

"I'm really fine," choked Loraine. "Honestly."

* * *

"So where do we know they went?" asked Kat, tracing the edges of the paper in a way that was making it crinkle and crease beneath her touch and leaving jagged holes along the edges. Actually, 'tracing' might not have been the appropriate word; 'clawing' was more like it, thought Darios ruefully.

"Well, we know they went along _here_ and down here, because it's the only way they could go, since there's mountain ranges on either side," said Marche thoughtfully, prodding at the location sculpture. He had quite a collection of them, and was rather proud of them, to the disgust of all the female members of the clan.

"So let's get them!" crowed Etoile, raising her bow triumphantly, making Nils glare suspiciously at her and Matias shoot her a peculiar look. The rest of the clan, accustomed to internal eccentricity, stayed silent, although Basil sighed and Oskar rolled his eyes.

"We might," frowned Marche. "The problem here's that there's only one way to get them. If we go up the pass this way, we might not be able to catch them, because when we reach it they'll be at the top already and past the hard bit."

"And if we go around, kupo, we'll take an extra week or so and they'll _definitely_ be past by then, kupo," rejoined Montblanc. "So there isn't much chance of us catching them."

"What about if we fly in?" asked Matias, pointing to a spot on the map just in front of the path. "Nils has quite a few wyrms in the monster bank. They'll be more than – what's the matter with you?" he asked, looking at Marche curiously, who had turned a rather interesting pasty colour.

"I…" was as far as the clan leader got out before Basil jumped in with, "He's scared of chocobos, kupo."

"Chocobos? Me dragonets ain't no big yellow birds! They's these pretty scaly colourful things and I luff them. They's mine! Miiiiine!" shrieked Nils in outrage. The rest of the clan looked at him, confusion all over their faces.

"He says wyrms aren't anything like chocobos," translated Matias, grinning. "Don't worry. A wyrm ride is awesome. You'll love it." Marche's face was a shade of green that contrasted pleasantly with his hair.

"Excuse me a moment," he choked out, and stumbled out of the tent. Ingg rose and followed him, with all the offended grace of a tame Coeurl. Matias' eyes followed her, with a half-amused, half annoyed spark dancing through them.

"He gets travel sickness," offered Darios. The other Blue Mage nodded, grinning.

"That's because he's a pansy," added Etoile, grabbing one of the location sculptures and turning it around in her hands.

"Er, Etoile, kupo, don't do that," squeaked Montblanc uncharacteristically, making a desperate grab for the sculpture as, with a casual toss, the Sniper threw it to the Summoner, who caught it easily and began throwing it up and down.

"Oh, but Monty, why not?" drawled Etoile. Basil grinned and pulled his Longbarrel out of a pocket, aiming at the sculpture casually so that the barrel of the gun followed the flight path of the sculpture: a rather nice Ulei River rendition, but not nice enough for Basil to care. Oskar also grinned, pulling out his Cinquedea and aiming at the sculpture.

"Bet you I'll get it first, kupo," taunted the Thief. The gunner replied with a cocky grin and a, "You're on, kupo. Prepare to pay through the kupo pompom!"

"Wait a minute, guys," said Darios nervously, raising his hands. "I don't think this is a good idea-"

"Yes, yes. What my fellow mage means is that we should let Marche see how proficient his clan is at accuracy," cut in Matias, smirking. Etoile cast him an appraising glance.

"I like you," she confessed, pulling her greatbow off her back.

"Most ladies do," he answered, shoving his hands in his pockets as the sound of retching came from outside and the disgusted hiss of a certain ninja floated in.

"Arrogant, aren't you," observed Katarina. "Shall we?"

"Kupo," answered Oskar, pulling the knife back until it was just level with his ear. "And I demand that Etoile-kupo does not participate, kupo."

"What!" shrieked the Sniper indignantly.

"It's right, I mean, the soft toy's right," admitted Nils. "Arrow-lady has an unfair advantage of longness and bigness and powerness and betterness over the fluffballs."

"He means you're taller, bigger, stronger and more experienced than the mogs, so you shouldn't try it," translated Matias, drawing hostile glares from just about everybody, except Montblanc, who buried his face in his hands and growled, "Marche is going to be kupo _pissed…_he's going to kupo crack a rod at all of us, kupo…"

"I'm going to what?" mumbled a nauseated Marche, stumbling in through the tent flap.

"Ah, esteemed leader," Ingg said sardonically, following. "I think our clanners have prepared a little show."

With that, Katarina threw the Ulei River symbol high up in the air. Oskar's knife and Basil's bullet left at approximately the same time, and Nils' insane laughter sounded at the same time as Montblanc's girly scream and Etoile's triumphant shout of "YES!"

* * *

"Get off," hissed the Soldier, pushing Loraine off the chocobo, making her stumble. Eloise had made good on her threat. So far, the assassin had suffered about fifty bruises, nineteen rapier hits and two bitch-slaps, making her exceedingly pissed.

"Er…are you sure you don't want me to…" mumbled El, trailing the Soldier worriedly.

"I'm sure, El," snapped the soldier, with a quick grimace. "Criminals like her don't deserve healing."

Casting a wayward glance and an icy smile at El, Loraine's hands tightened into fists behind her back. When her clan caught up to her, these people were in trouble. Big, big trouble. And she was going to make that stupid bitch Eloise pay. Pay, damnit! She swore by Exodus, even if it was the hugest cliché ever, she was going to make the elementalist pay!

* * *

"Wyrms?"

"Screw Marche. Wyrms."


End file.
